N MESSENGER
IBRARY
(93
COLLEGE
THE ADORATION
OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.
BT THE SAME AUTHOR.
THE EUCHARISTIC CHRIST. Reflections and
Considerations on the Blessed Sacrament.
I2mo. cloth, . net' #1-00
8X
THE ADORATION 53)5
THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.
BY
REV. A. TESNIERE,
Priest of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.
TRANSLATED BY
MRS. ANNE R. BENNETT-GLADSTONE.
REGIS
MAJ.
.COLLEGE
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO:
BROTHERS,
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See.
1902
54536
IRtbil ©bstat.
REMY LAFORT,
Censor Librorum.
Imprimatur.
* MICHAEL AUGUSTINE,
Archbishop of New York.
NEW YORK, March 28, 1901.
COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS.
Contents.
PAGE
{Ibe IReasons of tbe jEucbarist.
I. The Eucharist Continues and Extends the Great
Blessing of the Coming of God upon Earth . 9
II. The Eucharist Continues the Admirable Example
given by the Earthly Life of the Incarnate Word. 14
III. The Eucharist keeps the Remembrance of the Pas
sion and Death of the Saviour alive in the World. 19
IV. The Eucharist Renders Honor and Glory to the
Divine Majesty ....... 23
V. The Eucharist Continues the Work of the Salvation
of the Human Race ...... 28
VI. The Eucharist is the Security of Humanity in Pres
ence of the Justice of God, and the Shield of the
World against His Anger ..... 33
VII. The Eucharist is the Protection, the Consolation, and
the Sanctification of Holy Church . . -37
VIII. The Eucharist is the Aliment of Divine Life in Souls. 42
IX. The Eucharist is the Permanent Proof of the Love of
Jesus Christ for each one of us . . . .46
X. The Eucharist is the Centre of Charity upon Earth
and the Link of Unity amongst Christians . . 50
XI. The Eucharist is the Consolation of the Christian . 55
XII. The Eucharist is the Pledge and the Foretaste of
Heaven ........ 59
SMvtne titles of tbe Bucbarist.
I. The Most Blessed Sacrament . . . .64
II. The Eucharist is God ...... 68
III. The Eucharist is the Eternal . . 72
IV. The Eucharist is the Immensity . -77
5
6 Contents.
PAGE
V. The Eucharist is the God of Majesty . . 80
VI. The Eucharist is the Omnipotent . . 84
VII. The Eucharist is Divine Holiness .
VIII. The Eucharist is Divine Goodness . . 92
IX. The Eucharist is Providence ... '95
X. The Eucharist is the Sovereign Lord . . -99
XI. The Eucharist is the Supreme Judge . . . 104
XII. The Eucharist is the God of Mercy . . .109
Ibuman titles of tbe Bucbarfst.
I. Jesus in the Sacrament is truly Man . .114
II. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Mediator . . .119
III. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Father . . .124
IV. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Mother . . . 129
V. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Brother . . . 134
VI. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Spouse of Souls . 139
VII. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Friend . . . 143
VIII. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Counsellor . . 152
IX. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Good Shepherd . 160
X. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Physician of Souls . 165
XL Jesus in the Sacrament is our Companion . • 172
XII. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Host . . .177
XIII. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Servant . . . 183
ZTbe /Ifcotivee of tbc Bucbari0ttc !HDoratioru
I. The Eucharist is God Himself present under the
Veils of the Sacrament 188
II. The Eucharist is the Real Humanity of Our Lord
Jesus Christ .... .192
III. The Eucharist is Our Lord Crowned King of Glory
in Heaven 197
IV. The Eucharist is the Most Excellent Gift that God
could possibly give Us here Below . . . 200
V. The Eucharist is the Source of all Blessings to the
Christian . . 204
Contents. 7
PAGE
VI. The Eucharist is the Living Memorial of the Pas
sion of Our Lord Jesus Christ .... 208
VII. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament makes
Reparation for the Blasphemies uttered against
Our Lord Jesus Christ 212
VIII. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the
Best Means of Making Reparation for the Crimes
Committed against it . . . . . . 216
IX. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the
Most Excellent of Means for Rendering to God the
Great Duty of Prayer 221
X. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the
Easiest and the Sweetest Means of Prayer . 225
XI. The Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament is a
Most Powerful and Efficacious Means of Prayer. 230
^Exposition of tbe flBost 1bolB Sacrament.
I. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is
the Glorification of the Real Presence of Christ
in the Eucharist 235
II. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is the
Manifestation of the Personal Royalty of Jesus
Christ 239
III. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is
the Triumphal Rite due to the Victories of Jesus
Christ 243
IV. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is
a Solemn Act of Thanksgiving . . . .248
V. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is
the Reparation due to Jesus Christ for the Suffer
ings and the Ignominies of His Passion . . 253
VI. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is the
Reparation offered to the Eucharistic Abasements
of Jesus Christ 257
VII. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is a
Reparation for Eucharistic Profanations . . 261
Contents.
PACE
VIII. The Exposition of the tylost Holy Sacrament is the
Shield of the Church and of the World, Avert
ing the Strokes of Divine Justice . . . 266
IX. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is the
Manifestation of the Presence of Jesus Christ
our Mediator to receive our Homage . . 270
X. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament facili
tates Prayer and our Relations with Jesus . . 274
XI. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament re
sponds to the Desires Manifested by Our Lord at
Paray-le-Monial in the Revelation of His Heart. 279
XII. Our Duties in Regard to the Exposition of the
Most Blessed Sacrament 284
THE ADORATION
OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.
ZTbe IReasons ot tbe Eucbarist.
I. The Eucharist Continues and Extends the Great
Blessing of the Coming of God upon Earth.
I. ADORATION.
RECOGNIZE and adore, with all the power of your
faith, Our Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, really
present in the Blessed Sacrament. And after having
saluted Him with profound reverence, as the angels
and the Magi did at Bethlehem, prepare yourself to
comprehend and to be profoundly penetrated with this
capital truth, namely, that the Eucharist was instituted
to continue and extend the great blessing of the com
ing of God upon earth.
You know and profess the mystery of the Incarna
tion, in which the Word, the Second Person of the
Most Holy Trinity, the only Son of God, became man,
without ceasing to be God, and began to dwell among
us, similar to one of us.
In virtue of this fact God Himself, God in person,
corporally inhabited the earth. He ceased to be invis
ible and inaccessible; He was seen in Jesus, He was
9
io The Reasons of the Eucharist.
approached and spoken to, and He was touched in
Jesus; for Jesus, truly man, was also truly God.
Until then, God was seen only in inanimate creatures
and in rational creatures, which are but imperfect im
ages of Himself. But in Jesus He was seen in His real
ity, in an immediate manner, and in person. Whilst
continuing to be everywhere diffused by means of His
infinite being and the universal action of His power, He
was nevertheless circumscribed in Jesus; He had a
soul, a body, blood, a heart, and human limbs — He
spoke and acted by the mouth and by the hands of
Jesus. He was one of us, like to us, born in poverty,
of a human mother. He labored, was weary, He was
hungry and thirsty, as we are; He performed miracles,
placing at our service, in His benevolence and His com
passion for our miseries, His marvellous omnipotence,
which rules over sickness, afflictions and death, and
made them retreat. He announced the truth for which
human reason longs, the eternal truth, without any
mixture of error, with regard to God, His majesty,
His goodness, His mercy, and with regard to our sub
lime destinies. Jesus was God come upon earth, in
habiting it, treading on it with His feet, watering it
with His sweat before watering it with His blood; He
was come to unite in Himself these two extremes:
sinful man and a justly irritated God; and He recon
ciled the world to Himself, giving to it by His presence
and His benefits a warrant of the most complete of
pardons, the assurance of future peace and happiness.
This fact of the coming of God upon earth had been
awaited, desired, demanded by the anguish and suf
ferings of the creature and of the whole world during
more than forty centuries; it was the work of works,
the gift of gifts, the masterpiece of omnipotence and
the greatest blessing which had ever emanated from
The Reasons of the Eucharist. n
the goodness of God. If it had not been for His com
ing, the world would have cast itself down the deep
and sombre precipices of suffering, of sin, and of de
spair—unto eternal death. Therefore the Incarnation
of the Word is the end and the reason of everything
in the works of God.
The Eucharist continues to give to the world
this great blessing, this incomparable masterpiece.
Through the Sacrament God is present in person, in
body and in soul, in all parts of the globe; God is
amongst us; God has dwellings; God can be ap
proached, supplicated. He sees us, He hears us, He
loves us with His human heart, in all things like to
ours, and His presence is no longer confined to one
point as it was formerly in Judea, but it is to be found
in all parts of the earth at one and the same time: it
is not there for a few years only, but always, until the
end of the world.
Adore then with faith, with loving gratitude, the
Son of God made man, the Man-God, the Incarnate
Word, present and living in the Holy Eucharist; be
lieve in the truth of His power, in the perfection of His
life, divine and human at the same time.
II. THANKSGIVING.
It is certainly impossible to read in the Gospel of the
numberless blessings which the Saviour bestowed all
around Him, without envying the happiness of those
who were able to approach Him, to see Him, and to re
ceive from Him a word of peace or a miraculous cure.
His countrymen exclaimed with admiration: "No
one ever spoke like this man." And His life upon
earth is summed up in these words : "He went about
doing good."
12 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
Now the same presence ought to produce the same
results. If Jesus continues and perpetuates Himself
upon earth, He will do so with the same power, the
same goodness and for the same merciful and benefi
cent object as ever. Therefore it is true to say that in
the same way in which all good things were restored
to the guilty world by the Incarnation, they are pre
served and applied to it at all times and in all places by
the Eucharist: seeing that the Sacrament is the same
Christ, the omnipotent Son of the Father, the wholly
merciful Son of the Virgin Mother. Truth, virtues,
order, peace, harmony in the world and in souls,
the continuation of the relations between the earth,
in spite of its crimes, and a justly irritated God — all is
preserved for us, continued and given ceaselessly, by
means of the fact, the power, and the admirable
efficacy of the presence of Jesus perpetuated here be
low in the Eucharist. If it were to disappear for one
moment, there would be a chaos in the world of souls
worse than that which would be caused by the disap
pearance of the sun or the falling into ruin of the
universe.
Thank Jesus, therefore, for the love which makes
Him remain here below for you, and enables you to
enjoy all the advantages of His presence as much as
did those who lived with Him during the days of His
mortal life, and even more still; for if they saw Him
and heard Him, you feed on Him in reality, and you
possess Him so fully that He is yours fully and en
tirely.
III. REPARATION.
The great crime of the Jews, at the time of the first
coming of Jesus Christ, was to repel Him, to refuse to
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 13
acknowledge Him, and to persecute Him down to His
death on Calvary. Hence the malediction which has
pursued them during nineteen centuries. Alas! the
great crime of nations at the present hour is, also, to
refuse to the God of the Eucharist the means of estab
lishing His beneficent empire and ruling it for the good
of souls. Disowned and persecuted, men desire to
make Him disappear, even from His material temples,
after having snatched from Him through infidelity the
souls of children and of Christians of all conditions.
Oh! make reparation for this great crime, by becoming
more and more faithful to the Eucharist and by bring
ing souls to it as fast as it is possible for you to do
so, above all the souls of children.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for the grace of a lively, hearty faith in this
great fact of the Eucharist perpetuating for you upon
earth the presence of the Incarnate Word. Ask to
believe so easily and in so lively a manner that the
Eucharist is Jesus in person, that it may draw you to
wards Him, and that His presence may impress you
and excite in you the same feelings you would have if
you were to see the Saviour in His crib, upon Thabor,
or on the cross.
Practice.
As soon as you enter a church, salute Jesus in the
tabernacle in these words; "Thou art Christ, the Son
of the living God! "
14 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
II. The Eucharist Continues the Admirable Ex
ample Given by the Earthly Life of the In
carnate Word.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ, truly and personally
present and living upon the altar, and listen to the
consoling words issuing from the depths of the Sacra
ment: " I am the light of the world; he who follows
Me does not walk in darkness." " 1 am the way, the
truth and the life; learn of Me who am meek and
humble of heart." "I have given you an example,
that as I have done so you yourselves may also do."
When Our Saviour said these words, He testified to
one of the greatest blessings, one of the most im
portant ends of His mission upon earth. Humanity
had perverted the notion of natural virtues and it was
totally ignorant of supernatural ones. Without the
revelation of Christ, the Saviour, of the "holy One of
God," who taught by His words and by His example
the real idea and the perfect practice of virtues, the
world would have continued to live in darkness, and
to walk in the evil paths of moral corruption, soiled
with all the infamy of paganism.
The idea of virtue taught by such clear words, and
sustained by such encouraging examples as those
given by the Incarnate Word, is therefore an immense
boon. It is He who taught the world what the love
of God is, what love towards our neighbor is; in fine,
what are chastity, humility, patience, obedience, and all
other virtues. By first practising them, the Saviour
rendered them amiable and attractive; He counteracted
by His example our repugnance against making any
efforts. By rendering Himself the recompense of
every act of virtue performed through love of Him, He
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 15
has given to our combats in the cause of virtue such
magnificent compensations that man has reached the
point of joyfully embracing the greatest sacrifices that
he may practise it.
The Eucharist perpetuates before the eyes of all gen
erations the virtues of the terrestrial life of the Incar
nate Word; it suffices to look at it, to know what
faith teaches in regard to the Sacrament, in order to be
hold, shining in it, the most sublime, the most heroic
virtues, those which come forth from the very Euchar-
istic state itself and seem to be the condition of it.
Who is it that remains in such a state of inertia in a
poor tabernacle under such humble appearances ?
The all-powerful Man-God, the triumphant king. But,
[then, what poverty, what humility! Who is it that
obeys the words of the consecrating priest; who is it
that gives Himself to the prayers of the communicant ?
The King of kings, the sovereign Master! But, then,
what ready obedience, what unreserved submission!
Who is it that bears in silence the irreverence, the out
rages, the sacrileges by which the Sacrament is daily
attacked ? The God of majesty, the God whom the
angels adore in trembling ! But, then, what heroic
patience! Who, lastly, is it that gives the Eucharist
with all its graces to all, always, and without end?
The God that owes nothing to any one, the Saviour
who finished His task on earth down to the last
iota. But, then, how sublime is His devotedness
in the Sacrament! What charity, what forgetfulness
of Himself!
Thus, all the virtues are taught and practised by the
Saviour in the Eucharist, where He perpetuates in His
sacramental life the teaching and the examples given
during His human life.
Adore, then, Jesus in the Sacrament, praise Him and
1 6 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
contemplate Him as the master of all virtues; penetrate
your soul fully with this truth, which is one of the
most important in regard to Eucharistic piety.
II. THANKSGIVING.
It would not be possible for you to meditate upon
this consoling truth without your soul feeling itself to
be penetrated with gratitude for the sweet kindness.
the touching condescension of Our Lord. For if the
teaching of virtues is absolutely necessary in order that
we may comprehend them, is it not infinitely kind of
Him to perpetuate, in the Sacrament, the virtues of His
earthly life, so that all may see them there practised
before them in all their perfection ? Doubtless it is
much to read of them in the Gospel, but is it not more
efficacious still to see the practice of them continued in
our presence ?
And the examples are so striking that the most sim
ple among us can easily understand them. The pov
erty of the tabernacles; the fragility of the sacred
species; the silence and the patience observed by the
Saviour in the Sacrament, where He is forgotten, where
injuries are inflicted on Him, or where He is maltreated ;
the readiness He shows to give Himself to all of us,
friends or enemies— all this is visible, accessible, palpa
ble to everyone; it suffices to have the faith of the
catechism which teaches that Christ, God and man, is
present under the veils of the Sacrament. If He accepts
and submits to all the conditions of such a state, pov
erty, patience, humility, sacrifices, it is evident that He
wills them, that He has chosen and adopted them;
these conditions are therefore virtues which He prac
tises and of which He gives us the example. There
fore, there is nothing to do, in order to understand it
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 17
all, but to place ourselves before the Eucharist, and to
recall to mind the precept of St. Peter: "Behold and
do!"
But His goodness, which places before our eyes such
luminous and perpetual examples, does still more: it
gives us the Sacrament itself as nourishment, which
means that, by the Communion, we receive grace,
strength, and the means of practising what is taught
us. The Communion gives to the soul power to prac
tise what has been taught us by example. The Master
of virtues descends into us, unites Himself to us, prac
tises His virtues with us; He gives us, by His presence
in our souls, the power and the facility of virtue, of its
sacrifices and of its combats. It is more than exam
ple, it is the divine strength infused into the depths of
our soul, appropriated to our faculties. And as the
Communion is offered to us all the days of our life, in
all the situations in which we may be placed, it is
therefore in an uninterrupted manner that the Eucharist
communicates to us the grace of Christian virtues, even
as it is without interruption that it shows us the exam
ples of them.
Oh abundance of the riches of our God, bestowed
so lavishly in the Sacrament! Who is able to un
derstand thee sufficiently in order to praise thee
worthily ?
III. REPARATION.
Two thoughts ought to furnish reparation in regard
to this subject. The first is, that the example of the
virtues of Jesus continued before our eyes so merci
fully, and its succor so abundantly diffused in our
souls, render our vices, our sins, our cowardice in
doing what is right, our voluntary defects, incompara
bly more disfiguring, more guilty and more worthy of
1 8 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
chastisement. To be what we are, in presence of what
He is, and of what by His grace and His example He
labors so perseveringly to render us — oh shame! oh
horror! oh stupidity! How can we sufficiently despise
ourselves ?
The second source of reparation springs from so few
Christians thinking of the virtues of Jesus in the
Eucharist; nearly all of them neglect the treasure which
Jesus offers us at the price of immense sacrifices im
posed upon His glory, His honor, and His royalty. It
is sad, painful, and lamentable that so great a master
piece of wisdom and of love should be so ignored and
so neglected. We cannot but deplore it for ourselves
and for others, and take opportunity from it to com
passionate the Saviour, " ignored by those in the midst
of whom He lives," and so really too!
IV. PRAYER.
Let us ask for grace, and let us make the resolution
henceforth to live in nearer and more loving relations
with the Eucharist; to study in it the virtues of Jesus;
to apply to them, in order the better to understand
them, all that the Gospel relates of them; lastly, in the
contemplation of the Eucharist, to derive from it ex
amples of the virtues of our state; and on the reception
of the Communion, the graces and succor necessary to
reproduce in us these divine examples. May the
Eucharist be to us indeed, "the way, the truth, the
life!"
Practice.
Never meditate upon a virtue without studying the
way in which Jesus practises it in the Sacrament, and
the help holy Communion offers to us for the practice
of it.
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 19
III. The Eucharist Keeps the Remembrance of
the Passion and Death of the Saviour alive
in the World.
I. ADORATION.
IT is an article of faith that the Eucharist was insti
tuted by Our Lord Jesus Christ to perpetuate the mem
ory of His passion and of His death, consequently of
the love which made Him accept the one and the
other for our salvation. "Do this for a commemora
tion of Me," the Saviour said when, as it were, annihi
lating under the appearance of bread and wine His
body and His blood, and when burying Himself
wholly in the shroud of the sacred species. St. Paul
also said, according to the revelation which the Lord
had made to him in person: "For as often as you
shall eat this bread and drink the chalice, you shall
show the death of the Lord until He come."
It is in fact a matter of great importance that the
memory of the death of Jesus should always be kept
alive amongst men, because only by the invocation
of the suffering Christ and the application of the
merits of His death can we be saved. Besides, death
embraced for those whom we love being the greatest
proof of love, Jesus, who knows that our hearts can
not be really gained except by His love, wills that the
testimony and the manifestation which He gave of it
in His passion should always be present before our
eyes.
The Eucharist then ought to repeat to all men in
all centuries, that Jesus suffered and died for them.
How does it accomplish this mission ? By showing
the death of Jesus every day, as is done in the holy
Mass, where the priest calls down from the height of
20 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
heaven, by the all-powerful words of the consecra
tion, the living and triumphant Christ, and encloses
Him, as it were, devoid of movement, devoid of speech,
and devoid of life, in the inert bonds of the Eucha-
ristic species. Is not then the divine Saviour in a state
like unto death? He is here, under the Eucharistic
veils, in the perfect possession of His life of Man-
God; faith teaches us that since His resurrection
Christ can no more die. But what is it, then, to possess
life and not to be able to perform any exterior act, not
to be able to give any sensible proof of it ? It is to be
in a state similar to death, to be in the condition like
unto a corpse. Such is Jesus in the Sacrament; such
He appears and shows Himself. In order to compre
hend it, it is only necessary to believe and to see; to
believe that, beneath the veils of the Sacrament, the
Son of God, made man, resides, and to see that there
is no trace whatever of anything which we call life.
Neither freedom of motion to go from one place to
another, nor to fly from His enemies; nor speech
by which to converse with His friends, or to call
for help when He is profaned, nor power to perform
any exterior action, not even the form, or human ap
pearance, which enables us to distinguish a human
being — nothing!
He is given up, as He was during His Passion, to
the will of those who keep Him in custody; in the
chains of powerlessness; nailed upon the cross, un
recognizable, to such a degree that even His friends
might say with the prophet,, " I have seen the con
secrated host, and nothing, nothing whatever has
permitted me to distinguish it from another." Could
the Saviour better perpetuate the memory of His
passion and of His death^ on Calvary than by this
state of death ?
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 21
Adore, then, in the Sacrament, this divine, patient
victim, this meek, crucified one; never look at the
sacred host without recalling to yourself Jesus crowned
with thorns, nailed upon the cross and expiring for
love of us.
II. THANKSGIVING.
In recalling to mind the passion of the Saviour, the
Eucharist by that very fact recalls also the memory of
the infinite love which led Him to embrace it, the
sweet patience with which He bore it, and the merci
ful pardon which He bestowed upon His executioners
and upon all sinners in general.
This love, which led Him to embrace the dreadful
torments of His passion and the ignominious death of
the cross, when He had in His power a thousand
other means wherewith to satisfy the justice of His
Father — do you not see that same love shine with
added splendor in the Eucharist, where Jesus, without
being obliged to do so, but spontaneously and only
for our good, delivers Himself up to us forever, wholly,
without reserve and without condition ? Do you not
feel His tender, loving kindness pierce like a sunbeam
through a cloud, rendering the Sacrament so healing
to the distractions of your mind, the coldness of your
heart, the irreverence of your dissipated senses, the
tepidity of your whole life ? And does He not there
pardon all who betray Him, maltreat and profane
Him, as He did Judas in the garden, Peter in the court
of the Pretorium, and His executioners on Calvary ?
The silence of the host, so meek and so humble, is a
prayer which continues throughout the ages the sub
lime pardon of Calvary: "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do."
Take delight in and enjoy the loving kindness of the
22 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
Sacrament, that you may understand and find delight
in the loving kindness of Jesus in His Passion.
III. REPARATION.
In order to be assuredly convinced that the Eucha
rist perpetuates the passion and the death of the
Saviour, see if Jesus be not in it the victim of the
same treacheries, of the same violence, of the same
humiliations. The sight will excite in your souls that
compassion which the Saviour so greatly desires to re
ceive from those for whose sake He gave Himself up.
Treason: — is it not betraying the Eucharist as Judas
did, if it be received with a soul stained with mortal
sin ? Is it not to betray it like Peter, if it be disowned
in the practice of life, whether it be in presence of
a mocking glance, or whether it be to avoid an injury
or a sacrifice? Violence:— tabernacles profaned, hosts
trodden under foot, given up to the sacrilegious treat
ment of infidels, pierced or covered with filthy
spittle; did Jesus endure more than this in His Pas
sion ? Humiliation :— the smiles of the incredulous, the
blasphemies of the impious, the ignorance of so many
Christians; the ingratitude of so many others, the
scandalous falls of certain of His friends. Ignominies:
—the guilty negligence, the habitual irreverence, the
carelessness and impropriety which border upon con
tempt and too closely recall to mind Caiphas, Herod,
and Pilate, the insulting genuflections of the Pre-
torium, the crown of thorns, and the reed; is not all
this the Passion ?
Henceforth let pious women still draw near and
weep over the patient victim of the Sacrament; let
Veronica wipe His face and lift Him up from His ig
nominy; let Simon help to carry His cross and let John
stand at the foot of the cross ; let Mary be there to
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 23
compassionate Him and to suffer in her heart, through
sympathy, all that He suffers Himself. The Saviour
continuing to endure the same Passion is in need of
the same sympathy.
IV. PRAYER.
The remembrance of the passion and of the death of
the Saviour is holiness, is consolation, is strength, is
salvation; but in order to be all this, it is requisite that
the memory of it should be so profoundly impressed
on the mind, so sufficiently present to the spirit, so
powerful enough to attach us to Jesus Christ, as to
make us hate sin and fly from the occasion of it.
It is in order to give to the mystery of His Passion
all its efficacy that the Saviour perpetuates Himself
in so loving a manner in the Eucharist. Ask the Sac
rament, then, to produce in you this effect of its institu
tion; ask it as the fruit of the Communion when you
receive it, of the Mass when you assist at it, of the
hour of adoration which you will do well often to re
new, whilst feeling all its importance.
Practice.
Apply, in your ordinary meditation, the circumstances
of the Passion to the Eucharistic state of the Saviour,
that you may derive more fruit from it.
IV. The Eucharist Renders Honor and Glory to
the Divine Majesty.
I. ADORATION.
CONTEMPLATE with a lively faith Jesus Christ Our
Saviour upon the altar, hidden, annihilated beneath
the veils of the Sacrament, therein adoring the majesty
24 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
of His Father, rendering to Him all the homage con
tained in the most perfect religion. It is for this end,
the first of all those which He proposed to Himself,
namely, to glorify His Father by rendering to Him in per
fection all the homage and service which the creature
was incapable of rendering to Him, that the Word
made Himself man; and it is for that end, above all
others, that He made Himself a Sacrament. Doubtless,
the Word became incarnate, died, and assumed in the
Eucharist a new life for our salvation and for our eter
nal happiness, but above this motive there was another
which moved Him; it was to honor the majesty of His
Father, to render to Him all the homage, all the obedi
ence, all the love which God deserves to receive from a
reasonable creature. He says from the altar, as He did
during His life, to those who ask of Him the reason of
His mission, " I honor My Father, I glorify My Father."
See with what perfection Jesus renders to His Father
the duty of adoration. To adore is to recognize with
the mind, with the heart, with the will and by works,
the excellence of God, that is to say, His supreme
majesty, His independent being, His incomparable ele
vation above all things, in a word, His infinite perfec
tions of greatness, of power, and of majesty.
No one knows, or sees, or comprehends all these
perfections as Jesus does; they are manifest before His
eyes. No one knows the Father except the Son,
He said. And then what praises escape from His soul
to the glory of the Father! He sees all, praises, re
veres, honors, exalts all that is in the infinite divinity
of His Father; He goes to Him as being His principle
and supreme end, with all the strength of His soul ac
knowledging that He is the perfect happiness, the
finished perfection of all creatures; and with all the
power of His will He submits Himself to Him, gives
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 25
Himself to Him, acknowledges and accepts all His
rights over Him.
Oh, what a perfect adorer in spirit and in truth!
God sees prostrate at His feet, immolated before
Him, in order that He may render Him more honor
and glory, His own Son, who is equal to Him in all
things! How great is the glory which redounds to
Him from the voluntary subjection of this King of
kings, of this Lord of lords, true God of true God, an
nihilated before Him through love, that He may please
and satisfy Him! Oh! all ye who surround the altar,
behold clearly, with eyes of faith, Jesus Christ in His
office of adorer, which He accomplishes in all its per
fection, without exhaustion, without intermission;
and offer to God His adoration, His praises, His love,
to supply what is wanting in you for the adoring of
God in spirit and in truth as you ought to adore Him,
and as He deserves to be adored.
II. THANKSGIVING.
The second duty of religion consists in acknowledg
ing by the act of thanksgiving the liberality of God,
and all the benefits which the creature receives with
out ceasing from the inexhaustible Source of all good.
It is necessary, in order to accomplish this duty
aright, to understand how good, beneficent, liberal
and merciful is God, who owes nothing to any one,
and who so lavishly distributes His gifts among all
creatures.
It is necessary, moreover, to understand His gifts,
their excellence, their value, their extent, and their
number; gifts in the natural order, gifts in the super
natural order, gifts of grace here below, gifts of glory
in heaven.
26 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
Lastly, it is necessary not to have any egotism, to
attribute nothing to ourselves, as coming from our
selves, and faithfully to use all the gifts of God for His
glory and according to His will.
Jesus alone is capable of paying to God the whole
debt of the gratitude which He merits. He alone
knows all His goodness, He alone has sounded the
depths of His mercy, the riches of His treasures; He
sees all His gifts in all creatures; He sees them in
Himself also, incomparably more precious and more
abundant in Him alone than in all other creatures put to
gether. And He neither keeps nor attributes anything
to Himself. "1 seek not My glory, but the glory of
the Father who has sent Me." "Wherefore do you
call Me good ? God alone is good."
Therefore from all our tabernacles rises towards God
an incessant canticle of thanksgiving, and it is Jesus
who chants it in the name of all the creatures of whom
He is the Head, and all of whose graces are the fruit of
His blood.
Give thanks with Jesus Christ; look at the gifts re
ceived by you; study their value; above all look at the
gift of gifts, the holy Eucharist, which sums up in it
all the magnificent bounties of God, and give thanks
in union with Jesus, striving to imitate His humility,
His fidelity, His disinterestedness; for gratitude is
humble, faithful, and disinterested.
III. REPARATION.
Since sin entered into the world, it has not been
possible to have any religion towards God which does
not contain reparation and expiation of sin. But, in
order to offer to God a reparation equal to the infinite
offence of sin, there must be a victim of infinite price,
and a priest whose holiness is also infinite.
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 27
This priest and this victim is Jesus Christ our Lord.
He offered Himself upon the cross, He offers and im
molates Himself upon the holy altar as the victim of
expiation destined to appease the anger of God, to
satisfy His justice, and to obtain from His mercy par
don for the guilty.
What a holy priest, pure, innocent, without spot,
devoured by zeal for the glory of God, devoted to the
holiness of His name, to the establishment of His reign,
and to the conversion, the sanctification of souls!
What a perfect and sweet victim, offering the most
holy, the most perfect of lives to immolation, His
royalty to humiliation, His glory to abjection, His
sovereign rights to obedience, annihilating Himself
wholly, and as it were burying Himself alive in death,
enveloping Himself in the shroud of the sacramental
species, and there, like a corpse, accepting all, sub
mitting to all in silence and until the end of the world!
Penetrate into the tomb of the Sacrament where the
living Christ lies, the glorious King of angels and of
man. Behold Him adoring, appeasing, satisfying the
justice of His Father, offering His past sufferings, His
present humiliations, His poverty, His obedience, His
love, to compensate for injuries, offences, revolts,
crimes, ingratitude. Oh, if God be cruelly offended by
man, how magnificently He is honored by the heroic
Priest, and by the silent but indefatigable Victim of
propitiation in the Sacrament!
IV. PRAYER.
It is the greatest and most indispensable duty of the
religion which the creature owes to the Creator to
confess its absolute dependence in regard to Him, and
the necessity incumbent on it to await everything and
28 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
to receive everything from His gratuitous liberality:
prayer and supplication are the expression of this duty.
Man refuses to render it; trusts to himself, to his
strength and his gifts, and does not pray. But the
Word became incarnate that He might pray to God,
that He might offer Him the homage of dependence,
that He might make the incense rise to Him of the
humble and persevering prayer which is so pleasing in
His eyes. He prayed on His knees, prostrate, hu
miliated, with sighs, with tears, day and night, and
now our tabernacles are the sanctuaries of His prayer,
which knows neither weariness nor interruption. He
prays with all perfection, because He knows what
are the designs of God in regard to all things, because
He seeks nothing whatever except His glory, His will,
His reign; because He is pure, holy, devoted, beloved
by God His Father, who can refuse Him nothing.
Pray with this adorable pontiff of prayer; unite
yourself with His intentions, clothe yourself with His
disposition, and pray with Him, in Him, in His name.
Practice.
Accustom yourself to consider Jesus Christ in the
Sacrament in the holy and active functions of His
relation towards His Father.
V. The Eucharist Continues the Work of the Sal
vation of the Human Race.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ truly present and liv
ing in person behind the Eucharistic veils; adore Him
under His beautiful title of the Saviour of the human
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 29
race, and in the persevering labor, in the actual occu
pation, in the supremely merciful and excellent work
of your salvation, at which He labors perpetually and
without ever taking any repose, in the Sacrament of
the altar; for if He instituted the Eucharist for the
glorification of His Father, He also instituted it, at the
same time, for the salvation of men, which is the
principal means of the glory of God. In the same way
as the Son of God became man for us and for our sal
vation, so also for us and for our salvation did He
institute the Holy Sacrament. And in the same way
that He procured during His human life the salvation of
men by His prayers, by His preachings, by His bene
fits and by His Passion, it is still by the same means
that He applies Himself in the Sacrament to save us.
Contemplate Him with a very attentive love, en
gaged in this work. During His lifetime He prayed
at night, on the mountains and in solitary places; night
and day His prayers ascend from the tabernacles which
are placed everywhere throughout the world, like
sentinels on watch towers charged with guarding the
safety of cities.
Formerly His preaching proclaimed the truth in re
gard to duties and virtues which sanctify; in the
Sacrament it is His state itself which preaches to the
eyes and to faith the accomplishment of all duties, and
which loudly teaches all virtues. Does not the state of
Jesus in the Sacrament very loudly proclaim the
adoration of God, obedience, dependence, humility,
patience, devotedness ?
During His lifetime He gained souls for God by
His good deeds; and does He not continue in the
Sacrament to heal, to nourish, to console, to make
souls live again? Then He lavished blessings; now
He gives Himself!
30 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
Lastly, He redeemed the world by the shedding of
His blood. And behold the Sacrament is nothing more
than the renewal of His passion and death, the per
petual and universal effusion of His blood; it is from
the Eucharist as from their source that all the Sacra
ments derive their salutary virtues; it is by the prayer
of the Eucharistic sacrifice that our prayers which ob
tain grace are rendered valid. All the instruments of
salvation borrow their efficacy from the Eucharist.
And thus by His prayers, His state, His gifts, His
sacrifice, the Eucharistic Christ labors for the salvation
of the human race, and this admirable labor will end
only with the last hour of the world, when the cour
ageous, indefatigable and heroic Workman will have
finished the labor and will have fully consummated the
task which He accepted from His Father. Adore Him
and contemplate Him and follow Him with the most
sincere admiration in this labor of love.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Gratitude, with the joy and the happiness which ac
company it, will overflow your heart if you give great
attention to the fact that the Saviour comes to accom
plish personally in each one of us this labor of the
salvation of the human race by His Eucharist.
It is the individual application, repeated as many
times as there are Christians to be saved, of all the
elements of salvation. During His life He prayed for
all, and now at the present day He comes into every
one of us and prays in him, with him; He comes to
impress His teachings on the heart of each one of us
by making us feed on the grace and the sap of His
own virtues; He comes to us Himself personally,
entirely, sensibly to each of us, all the days of our life;
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 31
He comes to die in the depths of the soul of each,
shedding in us, together with His blood, all His merits,
all His satisfactions. Every one can, every one ought
to say: "I see the Saviour laboring directly for my
salvation; I feel Him operating it in me, I am there
fore really the object of His solicitude, of His labors; I
may therefore be very certain to be saved if I lend my
self to His operations."
Oh! the touching assurance, the convincing proof,
the invincible demonstration of the love, of the ardent
zeal with which the Saviour wills that I should be
saved!
Consider and admire that you may render thanks
giving for the beauty, the goodness, the merciful
condescension, the indefatigable perseverance of the
salutary labor which Jesus performs in you by His Sacra
ment, and you will be overwhelmed with gratitude
for this too beneficent Saviour!
III. REPARATION.
The Saviour addressed a severe reproach to the Jews
of His day who resisted His advances and His per
suasions, refusing the salvation which He offered
them, condemning themselves thereby to eternal
death, and to chastisement all the more terrible be
cause they were rejecting the Saviour Himself at the
very moment when He was bringing them salvation.
What must be said of those who resist the love, the
advances, the solicitations, the sacrifices of the Saviour
in the Eucharist?
What! He continues to remain in the midst of us,
multiplying the places of His residence, and we ignore
Him ? What! He renews every, day upon a thousand
altars at once, in an annihilation visible to all, the sacri-
32 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
fice of His life, and we are determined to take no ac
count of it! What! He pursues us to such a degree as
to make Himself, in order to penetrate into us and to
gain us, the indispensable aliment of our life, the
viaticum of our pilgrimage, the consolation of our
trials, and the remedy of all our evils; and we reject
Him with disdain and disfavor! And we condemn the
Saviour to the torture of holding out throughout the
long course of centuries His suppliant arms towards
a people who refuse to cast themselves into them,
therein to find life!
Ah! what a crime is this! What means this in
gratitude, this inexplicable hardness, this unheard-of
folly ? The Saviour may well say of us as He did of
the obstinate men of His day, and with still better
reason: " If I had not come, their sin would have been
less; but woe to those who have seen Me and who
have not believed in Me ! "
Let us make reparation by consoling the Saviour with
our fidelity and our assiduity in using the graces of
salvation which He offers to us in His Sacrament. Let
us examine if practically the Eucharist occupies in our
life the place which it ought to fill. Do we receive it
often enough, and are we sufficiently prepared ? Do
we have recourse to it with sufficient confidence and
promptitude ? Do we live in such a manner that
it may work in us our salvation in an efficacious
manner ?
IV. PRAYER.
Ask earnestly, first, for faith in the immense power
of the Eucharist for the salvation of the world and for
your own salvation; second, for grace to be faithful
and assiduous in making use of the Eucharist frequently
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 33
and fruitfully; third, for grace to make the obstacle
disappear as quickly as possible : sin, ill-regulated affec
tions, dangerous occasions, voluntary weaknesses
which prevent the Sacrament of all holiness from
sanctifying you in reality; fourth, that the Eucharist
may be better known, more diffused, more utilized for
the salvation of the world, which languishes without it.
Practice.
Increase, if not in number, at least in fervor, your
pious relations with the Eucharist.
VI. The Eucharist is the Security of Humanity in
Presence of the Justice of God, and the Shield
of the "World against His Anger.
I. ADORATION.
PROSTRATE yourself, with a lively faith and a rev
erence mingled with holy fear, before the altar on
which Our Lord Jesus Christ, in person and without
interruption, accomplishes His sublime and merciful
ministry of priest and victim in favor of a guilty
world.
Behold Him raised between heaven and earth, as
upon the cross, and interposing between the power
less, rebellious creature and the irritated Creator. Saint
John says that even in heaven there will be an altar
on which Jesus Christ will remain under the form of
an immolated Lamb, recalling ceaselessly to the Divine
Majesty, by means of His state of victim, the infinite
satisfactions which He offered to Him by dying to re
store His glory and to obtain the salvation of all men,
which He merited by offering His death for them.
34 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
If the spectacle of the sacrifice of the divine Lamb is
continued even in that heaven where there is neither
sin against God nor the fear of losing His friendship
and incurring His anger, it is the earth which above all
demands it, which has need of it, which could not do
without it. My God, when Thy Name is blasphemed
with perfect freedom, in public and in private, when
all Thy rights are disowned by society, when evil in
all its forms is favored, and is able without any hin
drance, but on the contrary with the approval of the
public powers, to spread and to invade souls, what
would become of the world if Thou didst not find
therein the compensation, the reparation, the sacrifice,
the holiness, and the prayer of Thy own Son, immo
lating Himself ceaselessly to Thy glory, and offering
His blood for the guilty ?
Adore, contemplate Jesus Christ behind the veils of
the Sacrament as in the most august of sanctuaries,
accomplishing the function of His reparative priest
hood. He has all the qualities required in a priest:
purity, holiness, contempt of created things, hatred
of sin, love for sinners, a heavenly life; all these
qualities He possesses in supreme perfection, in in
finite perfection, because He is the Son of God,
infinitely perfect. He has a perfect victim also,
which is no other than Himself; and it is His
soul, His body, His blood, His life, His liberty, His
power, His repose, which He takes and immolates
to God in the Eucharistic debasement, in which dis
appears the whole of His liberty .and the whole of his
life!
Adore Him! Adore Him in this sublime state, in
this incomparable action of His Eucharistic priesthood,
with humble fear, tempered by love and illuminated
by admiration,
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 35
II. THANKSGIVING.
Continue the contemplation of the sacrifice accom
plished in the Sacrament by Our Lord by considering,
that you may make thanksgiving from your heart, the
part which the love of our God assumes therein, the
marvellous inventions by which it is there manifested.
It is freely, and by the pure inclination of His mer
ciful heart, that He willed to add to His sacrifice on
Calvary, and to the humiliations of His human life, the
sacrifice of the altar and the abasements of His Eucha-
ristic life; it is a fresh gift, which at each instant of its
duration is renewed with a love equal to that which
made it the very first time flow forth from His heart.
Moreover, this sacrifice is a compensation which
surpasses in the glory rendered to God, in the satisfac
tion offered to His justice, and in gratitude for His
benefits, all that the revolts, the ingratitude, and the
stains of our sins attempt to take away from Him.
This intervention of Christ between heaven and earth
has for its object to maintain between God and man
reconciliation and peace, the communication of life
and of grace, to assure to every one coming into the
world the application of the salvation acquired upon
the cross; to the just succor to prevent them from fall
ing, to the sinner strength to rise again, to the dying
means for dying in peace with God, to the whole
world divine benevolence.
It is as perpetual as the needs of the creature and as
the unreasonableness of sin. It is as universal as the
world, that it may pursue sin everywhere and apply its
reparatory action wherever sin has left its destructive
principles.
Oh sweet and merciful, oh powerful and indefatiga
ble mediation of the Eucharistic Christ! Oh too
06 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
precious ransom! Oh vigilant protection! Oh, Sac
rament of the priesthood and of the sacrifice of Jesus,
throne of perpetual mediation, altar of peace, be Thou
blessed, praised, loved forever!
III. REPARATION.
Understand how serious a thing sin is in the world,
since it continues to be committed so frequently
in presence of the altar, whereon the divine Victim
immolates Himself for the very purpose of dimin
ishing its ravages, and yet in spite of its marvels of
love, its innumerable sacrifices, its astounding abase
ments, all is useless!
There is no doubt but that sin is rendered more
serious, more worthy of the hatred of God and of His
chastisements, by the fact of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
being despised, repelled, soiled, by erring man carried
away by fury against the love of His God. The pres
ence of the Eucharist everywhere makes of the whole
world, as it were, a sanctuary. It is this sanctuary
which the sinner so ceaselessly profanes. What will
not be his punishment if he perseveres in offending
God, notwithstanding the protestations, the advances,
the sacrifices, the reparations perpetuated and multi
plied by the Eucharist to preserve him from or to make
him cease from sinning ?
Examine yourself, and recalling to memory the most
serious sins of your past life, weigh them, measure
them by the weight of all the love contained in the
nineteen centuries of the Eucharistic existence of Jesus;
detest them as He does, on account of Him. Offer Him
that love for yourself, you can still do so; it is the
crown of His mercy; make use of it, for if henceforth
you despise it, your judgment will be terrible.
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 37
IV. PRAYER.
Pray always by the Eucharist, that is to say, by Jesus
the priest, the mediator, the victim, the ransom and
security of the world in the Sacrament. Remember
that He is always there in the act of His sacrifice,
which He renews night and day, at every moment
and everywhere. Delight to place the mediator of
peace between God and your miseries, your infidelities
and your sins. Shelter, beneath the sacrifice, the
prayers, and the protection of the Sacrament all those
who are attached to you by the ties of blood, of duty,
and of affection. The brood is not afraid of the vul
ture when it is under the extended wings of its
mother; and in the same way, beneath the protection
and under the shelter of the Sacrament we shall be
safe from the murderous arrows of the enemy, and
from the divine anger which revenges on us the vic
tories which we easily allow Satan to win over us.
Practice.
Confidently invoke the Blessed Sacrament in tempta
tion, danger, and trouble.
VII. The Eucharist is the Protection, the Consola
tion, and the Sanctification of Holy Church.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE, like a true child of the Catholic Church, in
her name and in her faith, Our Lord Jesus Christ, resid
ing in the Sacrament since the foundation of the Church
and until the end of the world, therein to give the
38 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
Church, which He loves so dearly, all the succor of
which she stands in need.
Salute Him by the beautiful name of Spouse of the
Church; for He is so in very truth, and He has chosen
her in His love, and washed her in His blood, that He
might render her wholly pure and beautiful in holiness.
He is in the Sacrament to follow her, to sustain her, to
console her, and to give her the divine Bread which her
children claim from this mother of souls. His pres
ence is the joy, the life, the honor, the glory, and the
reason of the inexhaustible fecundity of the Catholic
Church. A royal Spouse, and crowned King of the
earth and of the skies, He makes her partake in His
regal honors and share His empire; she is a glori
ous queen reigning with Him and by Him. What
are the Christian sects, deprived of the Eucharist, in
comparison with her; where is their glory, where their
holiness, where their fecundity, their apostolate ?
Adore the Eucharistic Christ as the sacred Head of
the Church; that is to say, as the head and the princi
ple of that mystic and supernatural body, the members
of which are everywhere, and who everywhere par
ticipate in the same life, believe the same truths, and
bear the same eternal hopes. It is from the Sacra
ment, from the Eucharist, the heart of the Church,
that all the channels of grace branch forth, bearing life
throughout the whole Church, even as the arteries in
the human body diffuse heat and movement.
Adore, behind the veils of the Sacrament, the Holy
of Holies of the New Law, the supreme but invisible
Pontiff of the Church. He wills to operate the ex
terior functions of His pontificate by means of visible
pontiffs. He speaks, governs, and sanctifies by the
Pope, by Bishops and by Priests; but in the sanctuary
of His Sacrament He exercises in an excellent manner
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 39
the function of prayer and of sacrifice, which is the
principal function of the priest, offering it night and
day, with infinite perfection. In the powerlessness of
His Host He in reality rules the Church; in His silence
it is He who teaches, by inspiring pastors with the
teaching to which they must make the Church listen, by
keeping away error from their lips, and by rendering
souls docile to their voice.
Oh Sacrament of the Catholic Church, its honor and
its glory, be adored, known, and loved by all the chil
dren of this mother of redeemed humanity!
II. THANKSGIVING.
Consider how good, how advantageous for the
Church is this assiduous presence of her Spouse with
her here below.
See how He follows her everywhere, on all shores,
under all climates; everywhere where she sets her
foot He is there, it is even He Himself who has led
her there.
See how He shares in her condition: glorified with
her when she is received and honored by a faithful
people; flying with her when she is persecuted; de
scending with her into the catacombs during three
hundred years, driven away with her from apostate
countries.
See with what fidelity He has remained with her
since He espoused her with His blood, nineteen cen
turies ago, without having even ceased for a single
day to be present with her for her protection and con
solation.
See, lastly, how patiently He bears with the faults
and even with the crimes which forgetful and un
grateful children of the Church commit so often
40 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
against Him; He bears it all, from His ministers as
well as from simple laymen, and nothing can weary
His heroic perseverance because nothing can conquer
His incredible love for the Church His Spouse.
Appreciate these touching proofs of the love of Jesus
for the Church, and you will render Him thanks for it
by being a right-minded child of this good mother.
III. REPARATION.
If the Saviour Christ loved the Church to such a de
gree that, having died in order to redeem her from the
captivity of Satan, He wills to remain with her always,
and at the price of all kinds of sacrifices to make Him
self the food of her children and the victim of their
sins, voluntarily offered and perpetually immolated,
what unutterable, intense, and poignant pain does
He not experience from the trials of the Church?
It is necessary to understand it in order that we may
offer Him the homage and the consolations of which
He stands in need in the cruel afflictions inflicted on
His heart as a spouse and father.
These trials are, first of all, the heresies and schisms
which rise up against the doctrine and authority of the
Church, striving to tarnish the one and to destroy the
other; and what vast provinces have not heresy and
schism snatched from the beneficent empire of the
Church!
Then there are mortal sins, apostasy, indifference
with regard to religion, the mortal lethargy in which
so many souls lie, and which by rendering them par
alyzed members of the Church here below, threaten to
separate them from her forever.
There are, in addition, the notorious defections, the
scandalous apostasies, the blows directed against the
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 41
august face of the most amiable of mothers, which
Jesus keenly feels, for He has said, "Who heareth you
heareth Me, he who despiseth you despiseth Me."
Lastly, there are violent persecutions inflicted by a
deceived and infuriated populace, or the perfidious and
more dangerous persecutions of governments which
strive to oppress, to humble, or at least to trammel the
Church. Jesus feels them deeply and He exclaims,
" Why persecutest thou Me ? "
Let us think, and think often, of the divine Head of
the Church, and let us remember that no one of the
members of His mystic body is attacked without His
being Himself grievously hurt. In these days of uni
versal war against holy Church, it is a subject which
imposes itself on the love and on the reparatory zeal
of faithful souls.
IV. PRAYER.
If there be a prayer which cannot but be pleasing to
Our Lord, and which He cannot but be ready to an
swer, it is certainly that which the children of the
Church offer to Him for their afflicted mother, humili
ated and persecuted. It makes its way straight to His
heart; He considers it a sacred duty, promulgated in
the precept which commands us to love our parents:
and the Church is the true mother of souls.
He who does not habitually pray for the Church
fails to fulfil this most sacred of all obligations. Jesus
has set us the example of it, and the altars on which
He prays and immolates Himself for the needs of the
Church are numberless.
Let us therefore place prayer for the interests of
holy Church, the Supreme Pontiff, Bishops, Priests,
Monks and Nuns in the first place of all our inten-
4 2 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
tions; let us pray united with the divine invisible
Priest for the reign, the peace, the extension of the
Church, so that all, Jews and pagans, infidels and
sinners, may be given back to the Church and may
come and adore, and with her celebrate her adorable
Spouse and her King in the Sacrament of His merciful
presence.
Practice.
The apostolate of zeal in prayer and devotedness to
the interests of holy Church.
VIII. The Eucharist is the Aliment of Divine Life
in Souls.
ADORATION.
ADORE, before your eyes, behind the veil of the sac
ramental species, really present and living, God and
man both together, who in the days of His earthly life
pronounced these words: " I am the Bread of life; he
that cometh to Me shall not hunger. I am the living
Bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat
of this Bread he shall live forever; and the Bread which
I will give is My flesh for the life of the world. He
that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in
Me and I in him. He that eateth Me the same also
shall live by Me."
Listen with the joy of life restored, of life assured,
to these words which promise you, with so much cer
titude, the most beautiful and enviable of lives— divine
life itself.
All life is in God as in its only source, and when
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 43
from this universal source issue floods of sentient
and rational life, there remains still in God a personal
life of His own, a life of holiness, of light, of love, and
of infinite happiness. Nothing obliges our Creator to
add the gift of this better life to the gift of natural
life. Nevertheless, our soul is radically capable of it;
and as the first created human soul, that of our
first father, was gifted and enriched by the gratui
tous goodness of the Creator, our own soul joins to
its radical aptitude to possess the divine life the
imperishable remembrance of the lost possession,
an immense desire to recover it, profound sorrow,
and an incurable feeling of exhaustion at being de
prived of it.
Now, only He who gave this divine life the first
time can restore it to us; God the Father bestowed
the first gift, God the Son restores it. We derive the
germ of it when we are by baptism washed in His
blood; but in order to preserve so precious a life, to
develop it, to render it actual, valiant, and fruitful in
holy works, to appreciate all the joys which it con
tains, there must be an aliment, a regular growth: — it is
the Bread of life, the Bread of the Eucharist.
Oh! adore then the divine life, the holy life, the
happy life, the eternal life which comes to you, which
is promised you, given and assured by the Bread of
the Eucharist. Adore Jesus Christ, made the living
Bread and the Sacrament of divine life in our souls.
II. THANKSGIVING.
If we understand both the horror of death and the
benefit of divine life for the soul, how shall we be
able to refrain from continually blessing, with feel
ings of the most profound gratitude, the thought
44 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
which conceived the Eucharist, the heart which gave
it to us, the love which preserves it for us ?
God is the life of the soul, even as the soul is the
life of the body. To be born to natural life without
arriving at supernatural life, after God had destined us
for it, is to remain uncrowned, it is to give a stalk
without a flower, a flower without fruit. More than
this, to remain as we were, destitute of life on ac
count of original sin and the sins which we fatally
add to it, is to be condemned to degradation, to chas
tisement, to the privation of all happiness, to estrange
ment from God, and to be exposed to His anger; is
not this to be dead, and to have incurred death, which
means eternal, horrible death ?
Well, then! let us breathe, let us hope, let us rejoice!
Behold the Bread which gives growth to life, which
repairs its waste, which shapes its course, which facili
tates its exercise, which preserves and keeps forever
the treasure of it; it is the Bread of life, the Bread of
the Eucharist! He who eats of it faithfully will never
die; if he fall for a moment beneath the blows of sin,
he will revive through the virtue of this bread.
Oh Bread of life, communicating to my weakness
all the energy, all the virtues of the life of God Him
self! Oh aliment of immortality, which fixes my
perishable life upon the immutable rock of eternity!
Oh Bread of honor and of glory, which raises me up
from the abyss of nothingness and of the most pro
found abjection of sin, to give me access with the
princes of the heavenly court to the table of the king
of kings! Oh Bread of peace, of consolation, of light
and of love, which gives to me a foretaste of the hap
piness which 1 shall attain if I allow myself faithfully
to be led by Thy influence and Thy power; be Thou
loved, blessed, praised forever by grateful humanity!
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 45
III-. REPARATION.
Has the world given this cordial welcome to the gift
of life ? and how do we ourselves receive it ? Does it
produce in us these fruits of a holy and divine life ?
Alas ! Some, and they are very numerous, do not al
low themselves to believe or to understand these be
nevolent advances of the Saviour; they keep aloof
from His table; they lead an animal life, full of acci
dents, a rational life mingled with sorrow and with
faults; but they leave their soul in death; they close
their ears through pride, they refuse the bread of
purity, through perversity they repel the best gift of
God, in which He gives Himself!
Others, more guilty perhaps, and at any rate more
base, desire to unite the divine life with a guilty life,
to eat at the table of God and at that of demons, re
ceiving, without the faith which enlightens, without
the love which purifies, the living bread into their soul
dead from sin. They only receive from it a greater
measure of the divine anger, which buries them still
more lamentably in death!
And I ! Do I have the life of God ? Do my thoughts
find in His thoughts their rule of faith ? Is He my su
preme love, loved only for Himself and regulating all
my other loves ? And if I do not live by the life of
God, is it because I do not nourish myself sufficiently
with the bread of the divine life, or that I do not par
take aright, not bringing the dispositions requisite for
receiving it, and not corresponding faithfully enough
with its vital influences!
It is a sorrowful subject for examination, which,
however, must be frequently approached and thor
oughly discussed, for it is a question of living by the
Eucharist or dying spite of the bread of life.
46 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
IV. PRAYER.
Repeat to yourself the words of the ardent desires
of those who listened to the promise of the marvellous
Bread of life: ''Lord, give us always of this bread."
The divine master has introduced them into the for
mula of the most excellent of all prayers, "Give us
this day our daily bread." Then from pity for all
languishing souls, for all the hungry, the sick, and
the dead which surround you, deprived of the Bread
of life through their own fault or from ignorance,
repeat to Jesus in union with His apostles: "Lord,
behold in the midst of this desert of life the crowd
which has nothing to eat that can really nourish it.
Have pity on it! "
Practice.
Assiduity in receiving the Bread of life with diligent
preparation and faithful correspondence to its divine
influences.
IX. The Eucharist is the Permanent Proof of the
Love of Jesus Christ for each one of us.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ, present before your
eyes in the Blessed Sacrament, and behold with grati
tude, with astonishment and adoration, behold if it be
not true that the Eucharist gives Him to you wholly
and for you alone.
It is the prodigy and supreme extent of His love here
below. It is only in heaven that His love will permit
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 47
us to possess Him in a greater and better degree. And
it is the property, the end and the aim of the Eucharist
to render Christ capable of being given to each one of
us, in truth, and in entirety.
Therefore it is the effusion of His love, according
to the words of the Council of Trent; in other words,
the gift which God had made us of Himself in
the Incarnation has increased, has multiplied, and has
been shed like an abundant stream issuing from a lofty
rock, which spreads its deep waters throughout the
whole valley.
Saint Thomas pronounced these beautiful words,
"All that the Word brought to the world by making
Himself man, He brings to each man in particular by
the Eucharist."
It is this Sacrament which enables us to understand
the energetic words of Saint Paul, " He loved me, and
has given Himself for me."
On Calvary He died once for all; in the reception of
the Sacrament the fruits of His death are communi
cated to each one of us. When we have received
Him, we cannot any longer doubt but that He is ours,
and very certainly ours; we possess Him, we hold
Him, we have seen Him come, we have enclosed Him
in our breast; He is our dear captive!
The personal meeting of God and man therefore
takes place at the table of Communion, and as nothing
obliges Him to make this gift of Himself, it must be
acknowledged that He makes it from love, because He
loves us personally, as though each one of us were
the only object and the whole end of His infinite love!
Oh, adore Jesus Christ in this supreme manifestation
of His love. See Him, the Infinite, the Most High,
the Supreme Majesty, coming towards you, offer
ing Himself to you, descending in you, annihilating
48 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
Himself for you, for you and your nothingness, for
your past faults and your present miseries! It might
be said, at the hour of Communion, so entirely is He
yours, that there are only you and He in the world!
Does not this fact, this union, constitute that which
is most admirable and most incredible in the Eucha-
ristic mystery ? And yet it is so ; believe, adore, love !
II. THANKSGIVING.
Render thanks to the infinite goodness of the heart
of Jesus, for the admirable condescension which has
led Him to specialize, to individualize, to render per
sonally and make intimately to each one of us the gift
of Himself in the Eucharist.
Ah! His Heart knew our hearts; He knew that the
supreme requirement of love is intimate union, a total
and direct gift. He knew that it would not have suf
ficed for us to be loved with the most generous de-
votedness, if this love had not been carried as far as
the personal proof of union, of the individual gift.
And the kind Saviour, who had already done so much
for us by being born and by dying for us, added to it
this consummation of giving Himself up in person to
those for whom He had been born and had died.
He desires thereby to make us also understand that
His intention is to be personally useful to us, by de
voting Himself to the service of each one of us, bring
ing to each the particular graces which are personally
necessary to him, on account of his nature, his char
acter, of his position, his vocation, his needs, his
difficulties, his temptations and his trials. It is above
all amongst souls that there are not two to be found
which are exactly alike. The triumph of love ought
therefore to be to bend, to adapt itself to these thou-
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 49
sands and thousands of forms, to the needs of souls.
This is what the Saviour has done by multiplying His
Sacrament that He may make it the nourishment of
each one of us.
Give thanks, then, bless and' understand how great
is the abundance of His goodness, which better than
manna adapts itself to the needs and the taste not of
some hundreds of thousands of Israelites only, but of
innumerable multitudes who will traverse, from the
Last Supper to the judgment, the desert of this life.
III. REPARATION.
Is it not true that gratitude ought to be modelled
upon and be measured by the benefit bestowed ? If
then Jesus loves us individually; if He makes of each
one of us the object and the end of His love, is it not
strictly necessary that we should repay Him in an
equal degree by loving Him with an entire love, a
special love, a love of predilection, by choosing Him
for the supreme object of our love and of our devoted-
ness; by loving Him where He loves us, in His Sacra
ment; and by making our love, our thoughts, our
homage, our labors, our sufferings, our joys> our suc
cesses, as well as our pains and our defects, centre
around the Tabernacle, as a continually renewed proof.
To love and to serve God in a vague manner as a
God more or less unknown, without ever feeling fof
His adorable Person in the Sacrament any of the senti
ments which we experience for the persons whom we
love, without ever showing Him the tenderness of
which we are prodigal towards the creature ; to love
Him only from interest, or from fear, and not as
children and friends — is this a response to make to
the love which gives itself so generously and so inti
mately to us ?
50 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
We are everything to Him; why is He not every
thing to us? Seek; be ashamed, blush! How little
heart we must have to love Him so little and so ill who
has so loved us!
IV. PRAYER.
Earnestly ask for the grace and the virtue of a per
sonal love of Jesus: to love Him personally is to love
Him for Himself, at the price of the whole of your
self.
Let Him be the rule of your thoughts, the most
cherished of your affections, the last end of your
works; do everything for Him, for His love, His satis
faction, His glory.
Then, above all, come to Him, give Him your time,
much of it, as much as is possible, always more and
more of it. Be not merely His slaves nor His mercen
aries, when by His Sacrament He desires that you
should be henceforth His friends. His delights are to
be with us; let our delights be to be with Him!
Practice.
Interior recollection from love; thoughts, recourse,
prayer to Jesus in the Sacrament.
X. The Eucharist is the Centre of Charity upon
Earth and the Link of Unity amongst Christians.
I. ADORATION.
REPRESENT to yourself the adorable Saviour, who re
sides beneath the veil of the Sacrament, who sees you
and hears you behind the lattices of the sacramental
sign placed between His glory and your weakness.
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 51
From consideration for the latter represent Him at the
hour of the Last Supper, surrounded by His Apostles,
to whom He addresses His last counsels.
Listen to His words, " Love one another." " This is
My commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you. By this shall they know that you are My
disciples, if you love one another. Remain in Me,
remain in My love! "
Such is the Testament of the beloved Father of the
people of God; such is the law of love which succeeds
the law of Sinai.
It is strictly true to say that the precept of charity is
the commandment of the Last Supper. And it is true,
not because it was in that place, the witness of the
greatest marvel worked by the love of the Saviour,
that it was promulgated, but above all because it was
in the Eucharist itself that the Saviour placed the grace
of it and perpetuated its imperishable remembrance.
To love our neighbor, and love him sincerely; that
is to say, to devote ourselves to his well-being, not
from caprice or from interest, but for himself, re
quires supernatural strength, which triumphs over our
egotism and our pride.
Egotism, which is innate in us and the very root of
concupiscence, is the seeking after our personal in
terest, our own satisfaction, even to the detriment of
the rights or the needs of our neighbor. Charity is
the pursuit of the welfare of others, at the sacrifice of
our own inclinations.
What is the power able to snatch us from the claws
of egotism if it be not the divine power of a Sacra
ment which is the greatest expression of charity, of
the love of a God giving Himself up for His children ?
Is the Eucharist, in fact, anything else except Christ in
the plenitude of His life, of His activity, of His virtues,
52 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
of His merits, multiplying Himself that He may
give Himself to all, perpetuating Himself that He
may give Himself always, extending Himself that
He may be everywhere given for the good of those
whom He calls, although they are by nature His
enemies, and whom He calls so mercifully, His own
—His friends.
It is the same thing as regards pride; it paralyzes
chanty, because in order to love our neighbor we
must serve him; to serve is to lower ourselves in the
presence of him whom we serve. What power can
bend our pride, unless it be that of this Sacrament of
the humility, of the debasement of Christ, where the
Master and the Lord, after having washed, like a slave,
the feet of His Apostles, placed Himself at the service
of all men in the most humble of conditions, that of a
little bread which has no other object than the being
partaken for the profit of him who eats.
Adore therefore the Saviour instituting by His sol
emn words the Sacrament of chanty, and as from an
abundant fountain causing to flow from it inexhausti
ble floods of self-abnegation, of humility, of devoted-
ness, to which every one may go and drink if he
desire really to love his neighbor as himself for the
love of God.
II. THANKSGIVING.
After the obligation of loving God as our Father, no
action is more noble, more honorable, or sweeter in
the doctrine of Jesus Christ than that of loving men as
our brothers.
How thoroughly we recognize in this precept the
Heart of Him who, being infinite and uncreated love,
willed also to make Himself love incarnate!
Doubtless charity requires sacrifices from every one,
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 53
but on the other hand it assures to us the benevolence,
help, and devotedness of all. Each one of us is there
fore put in possession of the love of the innumerable
Christian community through the commandment of
charity towards our neighbor. The sinner benefits
by the holiness, the prayers, the merits of all the just.
The weak find therein help given by those who are
stronger. The ignorant see those who are learned
hastening to make them share in their intellectual
treasures. The rich are of necessity the help and sup
port of the poor. No kind of indigence, or of suffer
ing, or of misery, or of tears, is the heavy portion of
one single person; for the obligation of solacing them
weighs upon all and upon each, and is sacred, imperi
ous, inviolable!
Oh! how beautiful is fraternal charity, beautiful
above all when each individual, looking himself in the
face, sees what is his weakness, what are his bur
dens, what are his needs! Never will this sweet
charity be wanting in the Church, because Jesus Him
self, its author, has perpetuated Himself that He may
ceaselessly keep alive its power, bear its sacrifices,
bless its labors. The focus of this devotedness, which
extends its flames over the whole world and penetrates
into the most secret abysses of misery, that it may
warm and invigorate all the suffering members of poor
humanity, this focus is the living Heart, the ardent
Heart, the compassionate Heart, the Heart more vast
than the universe, the all-powerful Heart which the
Sacrament keeps for us, shows us, and gives us in its
indefatigable charity for us.
Never think of any of the gifts which you have re
ceived from your brethren without letting your grati
tude rise to the Sacred Heart which is, in the Sacra
ment, the real author.
54 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
III. REPARATION.
Coming down from these general considerations to
the duties which charity towards our neighbor im
poses personally upon you, examine carefully how you
actually practise them. These duties are above every
thing: affection and esteem; prayer; corporal and
spiritual assistance, edification; bearing with defects;
pardon of injuries.
Examine yourself by the light of the Eucharist; that
is to say, see if you love others even as Jesus your
Master loves you; if you bear with others as He did; if
you devote yourself to them as He did. Then humble
yourself and make an efficacious resolve to correct
yourself with regard to the point in which you fail the
most.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for your family and for those with whom you
live, ask for your country, for the Church, the grace of
unity in charity; repeating the touching and earnest
prayer of the Saviour: " And not for them only do I
pray, but for those also who through their word shall
believe in Me. That they all may be one as Thou,
Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one
in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent
Me. I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be
made perfect in one, and that the world may know
that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou
hast also loved Me."
Practice.
Practise daily some exercises of fraternal chanty as
a thanksgiving after Communion.
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 55
XL The Eucharist is the Consolation of the
Christian.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Jesus, the Saviour with so good and compas
sionate a Heart, beneath the Eucharistic veils, and re
member the tenderness with which, seeing His Apostles
saddened at the Last Supper by the tidings of His de
parture, He cried to them, " Sorrow hath filled your
hearts because I am going away, but I will come back,
and I will not leave you orphans."
That His human presence should be taken from the
world was requisite, both in regard to our redemption
and as the recompense of the valiant Laborer for the
glory of His Father; but not to remain in another kind
of presence was impossible, both for His own heart
and for ours, impossible with respect to His work,
impossible with respect to our weakness.
The Eucharist was therefore instituted to console
the Apostles for the departure of their Master, and to
be the consolation of man in all his trials; it is for that
purpose in great measure, says Saint Thomas, that it
was instituted under the symbol of wine as well as
under that of bread, wine being a beverage which
revives, warms, and rejoices.
It was instituted that those immensely tender words
spoken by the Saviour, " Come to Me, all ye that
suffer and are heavy laden," may be always and
everywhere repeated, and that no one whatever, even
when plunged into the deepest trouble, may be able
to say, "I have not found consolation, and despair
has been my sole refuge." No! Jesus is there, Jesus
is there for all, Jesus gives Himself to all; Jesus is
the supreme good, He is the infinite good, He is the
56 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
happiness and the light and the joy of angels and
saints in heaven. If He suffices in heaven to render
the elect happy in every respect and forever, to be every
thing to them, and to hold the place of everything,
now, in giving Himself to us on earth, shall He not
render us happy; shall He not be all in all to us ? Is
the possession of Him not sufficient compensation for
the want of all other possessions, a consolation in the
sufferings which afflict us?
It is true that the presence of Jesus is veiled, that His
possession is only felt in the soul, and that in a very
mysterious manner; it is true that it tolerates the con
tinuance and even the aggravation of suffering; this is
all true; but such has been the condition of human life
ever since original sin. There is no question of sup
pressing the trials necessary to expiate sin and to gain
heaven; there can be no question of changing the land
of exile into a Paradise of glory; but there is a question
of rendering sorrow endurable, and trials meritorious,
of preventing despair, of rendering tears less bitter, of
sustaining, in a word, hope, of rendering it valiant and
immovable, of enabling the soul, even in the midst of
the most inconsolable sorrows and the most terrible
suffering, to say, leaning upon Jesus present here be
low for its sake and possessing Him: "I hope in
Him, I shall never be confounded; I am nailed upon
the cross, but it is with Jesus; I love Him, nothing
shall be capable of separating me from the love I have
given to Him."
II. THANKSGIVING.
Enjoy sweetly and at length the reasons which ren
der so certain, so active, so well appropriated to our
needs, the power of consolation to be found in the
possession of Jesus.
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 57
It is because the divine Master Himself willed to
suffer in truth, and more than we shall ever do with all
our sorrows. You remember the words of Holy Scrip
ture, which are so affirmative, " He has in truth taken
upon Him our infirmities, He has borne our griefs:
Vere languor es nostros ipse tulit et dolores nostros ipse
portamt."
He did so to the extent of a man who was nothing
but sorrow. Virum dolorum, one who knew to the
utmost and who knew by experience what suffering
is : Scientem infirmitatem.
Now if it be true that he who has not suffered
knows nothing of suffering, must it not necessarily
follow that one who has suffered so much will under
stand all suffering ? And is it not the first and essential
condition of one who wishes to administer consolation
that he should understand suffering ?
Add to this that Jesus endured all these sufferings
only that He might Himself experience all that we en
dure, and become by means of this personal suffering
more compassionate, more merciful: Tentatus autem
per omnia lit misericors fieret.
Moreover, He instituted His Sacrament as a me
morial of His sorrowful Passion, and also as a sac
rifice of Himself, renewed every day under our eyes,
to encourage us by so great an example to walk in the
path watered by His blood and by the tears of His
Mother, along which still resound the echo of the cal
umnies, of the condemnations and maledictions He had
to endure, along which also we still hear the groans
wrung from Him by the treachery of His disciples, the
abandonment of His Father, and the separation from
His holy Mother.
Lastly, in this Sacrament, wherein He lives risen and
glorious, joining the triumph of life with the debase-
5 8 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
ments of death, He proclaims aloud that the end of all
sufferings, if we bear them for God, is life without end,
eternal reunion, infinite happiness.
Oh! Christian who art overwhelmed and dost suc
cumb, remain near Jesus; receive Jesus; come back once
more, come back; there is only one misfortune which
could happen and which would be the consummation
of thy miseries; namely, that thou shouldst keep away
from Him, the sole, the absolutely sole consoler worthy
of the name.
III. REPARATION.
Is it not true then that we are guilty and still more
blind even than guilty, when we abandon prayer and
communion in a season of trial ? Is it not inflicting an
injury on our soul to as great an extent as would be
committed by a sick person refusing necessary reme
dies ? It is cruelty towards ourselves; it is cruelty to
wards the heart of so good a Saviour.
Blindness is changed into folly when, abandoning
the true Consoler, we turn to the world to ask of it
solace in our troubles, by joining in its pleasures and
its feasts; it then becomes the delirium of the soul!
The soul dreams, it allows itself to be carried away by
its dreams into the imaginary land of all kinds of hap
piness, and it fancies that it possesses them! But
what an awakening follows! What depression at the
awakening, what despairing solitude!
Remember your behavior under trials, and see what
you have to make reparation for at the feet of the
divine Consoler!
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for grace and make a resolution to remember
the Host always in the midst of your troubles; to go
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 59
to it at the very beginning of the trial; never to cease
as long as it may last, and if it be absolutely over
whelming, to have recourse to the tabernacle and to
holy Communion. Be not afraid of your imaginary
powerlessness to think, to discourse, to pray, and to
experience fervor; you have your title to Communion
and your preparation for it in the suffering itself. Be
lieve in Jesus; say to Him, Have pity; show Him your
ills, it is sufficient.
Practice.
To redouble your visits to the Blessed Sacrament in
the time of trial.
XII. The Eucharist is the Pledge and the Fore
taste of Heaven.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE, behind the cloud of the sacred species, as in
a heaven which has drawn nearer to earth, and where
He wills to reside that He may be more accessible to
us, the King of angels, the Sovereign who reigns radi
ant and triumphant in the heaven of His glory.
He is the same here in the sweet light of the Eu-
charistic cloud, so well suited to the weakness of our
eyes, as in the splendor of His throne in the highest
heaven. He is here to give us the pledge and the fore
taste of what we shall possess in the heaven of His
glory.
He is the pledge, that is to say, the promise, the as
surance, the agreement to give us His Paradise. Has
He not in fact said : " He who eats My flesh has eternal
60 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
life;" "I am the Bread of heaven, he who believes in
Me shall not die " ? He has therefore taken an engage
ment upon Himself; the Eucharist guarantees the truth
of His word; it publishes it everywhere, and keeps in
violable its integrity.
Besides, having given Himself, as He does in the
Eucharist, He gives Himself necessarily afterwards in
heaven. What is heaven? The possession of Jesus,
the perpetual and assured possession of Jesus, a
mysterious reception of Jesus, without reserve and
without end; He in us perfectly, we completely in
Him — behold heaven! But what is the Eucharist?
The possession of Jesus, the permanent presence of
Jesus; the sacramental reception of Jesus. The
mode differs, it is true; here Jesus is veiled, and we
are powerless to possess Him perfectly, and to be
ever present with Him; and even in the eating, faith
alone enjoys Him, whilst the senses remain outside
His contact, often incommoding faith, clouding its
glance, and impairing its flight. But, nevertheless, the
foundation is the same, and Jesus gives Himself here as
He does there, really.
Have we any reason then to be astonished that
the Eucharist should be the pledge of heaven ?
Having bestowed on us this first gift, cannot the
Saviour afterwards give Himself in heaven ? Ap
preciate this truth, and adore Him who wills to en
gage Himself as irrevocably to us as we are inconstant
to Him.
The foretaste — it is more than a pledge; it is an
anticipated participation in the blessing promised and
repeated; it is already a beginning of enjoyment of all
of which the full possession is reserved for us. What is
heaven from this point of view ? The perfect pos
session of all good things. Do not the Scriptures call
TJie Reasons of the Eucharist. 61
the Eucharist "the Bread which contains all de
lights " ? And does not Jesus also say that it is the
"Bread of heaven"? Cannot then the divine beati
tude allow itself to be tasted in the Bread of God,
seraphic joys in the Bread of Angels, something, finally,
of what it is in heaven in the Bread of heaven ?
Ah, it is not this food that is to blame for so much
misery in this valley of tears, but only ourselves,
whose faith allows itself to be obscured by the fascina
tions of earthly treasures, whose heart so soon becomes
too much weakened by material pleasures, to be able
to enjoy the pure delights of future blessings.
Adore, then, with gratitude, admiration, and con
fusion the "living Bread come down from heaven in
order to make of this our earth the threshold of
Paradise."
II. THANKSGIVING.
How great is the goodness of God, how earnest
His love, how impatient He is to heap His mercy upon
us! In truth, it might have seemed to be sufficient
in order to prove to us more of love than we shall
ever merit, to have promised us heaven as a rec
ompense for our labors and our struggles, and to
wait in order to give it until the measure of our merits
should be filled.
No! The Saviour who acquired for us a right to
heaven by His death, who delivers up to us the price
of it in His blood, which all the Sacraments diffuse in
us; who has taught us the path by His saving words,
who has opened the gate of it by entering therein first
Himself, and who is occupied in preparing our place
for us in it, — this kind Saviour, whom it would be im
possible to call sufficiently kind, infinitely kind, this
62 The Reasons of the Eucharist.
Jesus wills to come back to us to lead us there by the
hand, as it were; He wills to give Himself up before
hand for us that He may guarantee the access to it for
us; He wills to make us experience some of the delights
which await us there in order to attach us to it for
ever, by separating us victoriously from the temporary
but seductive good things of this world.
Oh God! what wouldst Thou not have done to
bring me at last to heaven ? And if I do not go there,
how just and deserved will be my chastisement! Will
it ever equal the love Thou hast shown to make me
avoid it ?
III. REPARATION.
Oh Lord, my God, beauty without stain, sovereign
goodness, life without end, substance of all happiness
and of all good, how great is my shame when I recall
to mind Thy promises, Thy calls, the pledge and the
foretaste of heaven which Thou procures! for me by
this heavenly Sacrament!
The fact is, that I hardly ever think of heaven except
when I am unhappy and deprived of the joys which I
had ardently sought after upon earth. Heaven then
appears to me desirable only in proportion to what I
suffer. But let human happiness shine upon me only
a little, let me have the enjoyments which my heart
and my senses call for, then immediately my eyes
cease to be raised towards Thee; and if I think of
heaven it is to supplicate Thee, alas! not to call me
thither until I have completely emptied the cup which
inebriates me.
Divine Sacrament of heaven, it is into this earthly,
obscure, and filthy soul that Thou hast cast Thyself; ah,
I understand but too clearly that Thou art but little ap-
The Reasons of the Eucharist. 63
predated therein, and that Thou remainest inert,
powerless to excite the production of the holy desires,
the sweet joys, the ardent impatience, the lofty aspi
rations of the Saints towards the heavenly country and
towards Thee, who art all the treasure of it.
IV. PRAYER.
Let us make, at the foot of the Sacrament of heaven,
the most urgent resolutions relative to the great duty of
hope; let us make our daily prayers and frequent
communion rest upon them; but let it be upon one
condition: that we recall them to mind in each one of
our thanksgivings, to examine if we are faithful to
them.
There is no doubt but that this practice will disen
gage us from the ties of the flesh, will raise us above
the frivolities of this world, will make us despise them
and love eternity; it is then that we shall feel in the
depths of our heart the assurance of heaven. It is
then that we shall really experience how truly the
Bread of life contains the foretaste of its eternal de
lights.
Practice.
To ask at each Communion for final perseverance,
and the desire for heaven, and each time to make a
sacrifice of one of the things which might retard the
possession of it for us.
Ube Divine Tittles ot tbe Eucbartst.
I. The Most Blessed Sacrament.
I. ADORATION.
THE Most Blessed Sacrament is Our Lord Jesus
Christ, both God and man, really, truly, and substan
tially present beneath the veil of the Eucharist.
Adore His Divinity, present in the Host. The
Blessed Sacrament is God, the infinitely perfect Being,
the Creator of heaven and earth, and the Sovereign
Lord of all things.
Adore the holy Humanity of Jesus present in the
Blessed Sacrament; His body, His blood, His heart,
His soul; be sure that He is really living, really present
in His own person, and not in remembrance, or in
symbol, but in reality.
Proclaim Him to be your God, your Saviour, your
king, your end, your all. Acknowledge yourself to be
His creature, His subject, His servant. Adore Him as
Mary and Joseph did at Bethlehem, as the Angels do
in heaven; make acts of faith in His presence, of sub
mission to His authority, of abandonment to His will.
Give yourself to Him; swear to be faithful to Him and
to love Him forever.
II. THANKSGIVING.
The Most Blessed Sacrament is Our Lord in His in^
finite goodness for you. It is your Benefactor, from
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 65
whom you derive all good things. It is He who
watches over you, keeps you in all perils and snatches
you from Satan; He loves you, He protects you, He
continues to bestow upon you His treasures, even
when you do not love Him; oh, how good He is!
It is your Saviour who was born, who suffered and
died for you. It was to bring to you all the fruits,
all the graces of His life and of His death that He in
stituted the Eucharist, by means of which, in spite of
humiliations and numberless outrages, He comes to
you, and gives Himself to you, to render you a sharer
in His life, and to prove to you that He loves you
greatly, you personally!
Ah, thank, bless the goodness, the devotedness of
Jesus towards you in the Eucharist! Behold His Heart
open to you, consumed with the flames of the most
ardent love. Love Him and thank Him with Mary,
Saint Joseph, the Angels and Saints in heaven.
III. REPARATION.
The Most Blessed Sacrament is Our Lord present in
His adorable holiness, but also in His most sweet
mercy. Adore Him, truly holy and holiness itself, and
confess humbly at His feet that you are nothing but
sin and misery. Detest, through love for Him, all the
sins of your life; offer as a reparation for them your
labors, your daily sufferings and daily annoyances.
Jesus is in the Sacrament as your Host of reparation;
He continues the sacrifice of Calvary and in the Mass
applies the fruits of it to the world. Offer them then
for yourself, for the sins of your family, of your
country, and pray for all sinners.
Lastly, compassionate Our Lord, so greatly offended
66 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
and so greatly despised in the Blessed Sacrament.
What sacrileges! What profanations!
Console His heart; love Him; keep near Him; ad
dress loving words to Him; above all, promise to avoid
committing even the smallest sin that you may in so
far diminish the measure of human ingratitude. Offer
to Jesus the reparations made by Mary on Calvary, and
unite yourself with the Angels, who weep over the
tabernacles abandoned by men.
IV. PRAYER.
The Most Holy Sacrament is Our Lord in His good
ness and His liberality towards men. Address your
selves therefore to Him, as the author of all good
things, as the best of fathers. He created you, He
preserves you only through love; believe then that He
is ready to give you all necessary succor: for your
body and your soul; for your spiritual and temporal
affairs; for your embarrassments, your difficulties, your
trials— for yours and for those of all belonging to you.
Everything touches Him, because it is He who per
mits all these things for your eternal salvation.
Pray to God through Jesus, and in His name; He is
upon the altar as a mediator between God and man;
the advocate who takes care of your interests before
the Divine Majesty.
Then address yourself to the Heart of Jesus, which is
living therein; recall to it its compassion for the poor
and the afflicted, and beg of it by its goodness to have
pity on you! Be earnest; pray with faith; above all,
promise to cooperate with grace and take means for
doing so: it is the condition of all sincere prayer.
Place beneath the eyes of Jesus, and recommend
very earnestly to His goodness, all whom you love or
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 67
to whom you are under any obligation. Do not for
get the souls in Purgatory. At the conclusion of the
hour which you have consecrated to Jesus to honor
Him and give Him pleasure, you will have great power
over His heart.
Recite five Paters and Aves for all these intentions,
and those of the Sovereign Pontiff, to gain the indul
gence; then prostrating yourself ask of Jesus a last
blessing and retire with your soul rendered happy and
strengthened by this hour of Paradise!
Practice.
Reverence in presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
HONORABLE AMENDS TO THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF
THE ALTAR, IN USE AT ROME.
Animated by the profound reverence with which
faith inspires me, oh Saviour Jesus Christ, true God
and true man, I love Thee with my whole heart and I
adore Thee in the most august Sacrament of the Altar;
1 offer Thee my love in reparation for all the irrever
ence, the profanation and the sacrileges which I have
ever committed and also for those which have been
committed by others and which unhappily may be
committed in the future!
1 adore Thee then, oh my God, not indeed as Thou
deservest to be adored, nor even as much as I ought to
adore Thee, but at least in so far as I can!
I long to be able to adore Thee with all the perfec
tion of which angelic creatures are capable.
Moreover, I resolve to adore Thee, now and always,
not only for Catholics who do not love Thee and do
not adore Thee, but also in lieu of, and for the conver
sion of all heretics, schismatics, Mahomedans, Jews,
68 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
idolaters and bad Christians. Yes, oh my Jesus, be
Thou known, adored, loved, and thanked by all men
and at every moment in the most holy and most divine
Sacrament!
(Indulgence of two hundred days for the faithful
every time that they recite this act of reparation.)
II. The Eucharist is God.
I. ADORATION.
LISTEN to the question which issues from the depths
of the tabernacle, and which the Saviour addresses to
you as He did to His apostles: "Whom do men say
that I am ? "
Hasten to answer Him as did Peter in the name of
all, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God; we
believe it and know it."
Yes, the Saviour in the Sacrament is the Son of God,
God like His Father-and the Holy Sacrament is God.
It is of great importance thoroughly to know and to
acknowledge this; there is in it as much a question
of the glory of the hidden God as of our reverence and
of our confidence in Him.
If Jesus Christ be truly present beneath the sacra
mental veils, Jesus Christ being God, the true God, in
all things equal to His Father, God of God, Light of
light, true God begotten by the true God, it follows
that God is really in the Sacrament. God cannot be
diminished or divided; if He is in the Sacrament, He
is there in the truth of His being, in the plenitude of
His perfections, in the essential relations which con
stitute the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity.
It is true that God is in all that bears a lineament of
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 69
His nature, an imprint of His perfections, not less than
in all which receives the influence of His action. Thus
God is in the life of everything which exists, in the
soul of man formed after the image of his Creator, in
the grace and the Sacraments which His divine life
communicate to us. He is in all these things naturally,
or by the effusion of a gift derived from Him ; but it is
quite otherwise in the Eucharist. There He is present,
with a personal presence, total and privileged. He is
there as He was in Jesus Christ when the Incarnate
Word lived here below.
Saint John said, "The Word was with God, the
Word was God, the Word was made flesh." The
Saviour also said, "I and the Father are one." Cer
tainly, the divinity was in Jesus in quite another man
ner than in the sun which shone over His head, in the
flowers which bordered the path along which He
walked. He was in Jesus as in His own Word; as in
His sanctuary, more sacred than that which He inhab
ited in the temple. God had said that He would dwell
therein, and He was therein in the sense that the Mercy
Seat was the place where He listened to the prayers
which were addressed to Him. But if He have de
serted it, if Saint Paul says that that sanctuary was only
figurative, the presence which God manifested there
was therefore only figurative also, and preparatory
to the presence with which He was to occupy the
new Tabernacle. God willed to give Himself in
comparably more than He ever did before; He dwelt
personally in Jesus Christ, in the plenitude of His
being; and by a necessary concomitance in the Trinity
of His Persons.
Now the Eucharist is Jesus Christ Himself enclosed,
for very good reasons, beneath the Sacramental signs.
God is therefore in the Eucharist as in Jesus Christ,
70 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
and as Jesus Christ is God, the Most Blessed Sacra
ment is therefore God.
Let us humbly adore Him, in presence of the awful
vicinity of His majesty, but with confidence, as is suit
able towards a God who draws so near to us only
through love.
II. THANKSGIVING.
How this presence of God here below elevates us,
and how good it is for us!
It elevates us in a very special manner, because it
enables us to live in the company of God, it makes of
us the friends, the guests, consequently the proteges of
God. "Who is the privileged people so privileged,
whose God comes so near to it ? "
It is good for us, for " if God be for us, who can be
against us" ? And is it not evident that God is for us,
seeing that He only comes to us from love, nothing
having the power to constrain Him to remain with us ?
He is therefore in the Eucharist only because His lov
ing kindness is moved by our profound weakness.
But how greatly does this presence make the divine
Sacrament increase and become radiant! These weak
forms of bread enclose, contain in their plenitude,
without diminution or confusion, all the perfections
of God, of which each one is a world infinite in
beauty, splendor, and life. The majesty, the eternity,
the immensity, the immutability of God; His omnip
otence, which creates; His providence, which preserves
and governs; His supreme justice, which judges all
beings before His tribunal without appeal; His beati
tude, which recompenses them forever!
Oh adorable Sanctuary! The divine Being is in truth
behind the transparent veil of the weak appearances;
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 71
and behind this veil is still accomplished the most pro
digious of mysteries, the grandest of acts. Oh holy
Host! to approach Thee is therefore to approach God,
and to receive Thee is to be deified!
Who shall proclaim with accents worthy of the sub
ject the praises, the thanksgiving which Thou dost
merit ?
III. REPARATION.
Hence, there is no question of hesitating any longer:
whoever neglects the Eucharist neglects God Himself,
who has come there expressly to oblige us to honor
Him, to cultivate His presence by the homage of the
most perfect religion. Whoever despises the Eucha
rist, despises God Himself. Whoever profanes the
Sacrament by a sacrilegious Communion or by violence
inflicted upon the tabernacles, treads God Himself un
der foot, and renews, as much as he can, the deicide
committed on Calvary.
Can we be astonished whilst seeing so many churches
deserted ; whilst hearing of the profanations committed
every day; whilst beholding the behavior of so many
Christians who are determined, no matter at what
cost, to abuse the Sacrament of Jesus Christ,— can we
be astonished that the divine chastisements are so ter
rible and so frequent, that scourges are multiplied by
His irritated hand ?
Ah! let us hasten to make reparation, by being more
attentive to the religion which the presence of God
here below claims from us; let us multiply homage
and honors; let us purify our souls and sanctify our
virtues to mollify the injuries of which the God of the
Sacrament is the object.
72 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
IV. PRAYER.
"I will pray in Thy sanctuary, oh my God, and I
will adore Thee in Thy holy temple."
Such is the prayer we must offer and the resolution
imposed upon us by the presence of God amongst us.
To come and render homage in His temples to Him
who through pure goodness and spite of insults
wills to reside amongst us. Always to treat the
Sacrament with reverence and fear, with humble
and profound piety, borrowing their spirit from
the angels, who in heaven remain prostrate in His
presence, veiling their face with their wings, and
even at opportune moments borrowing the attitude of
their perfect religion. Lastly always to remember in
our troubles, our doubts, our falls, that God is there,
our Emmanuel, and not to seek Him elsewhere.
Practice.
To avoid, no matter what it may cost, speaking in a
church, and indulging in worldly habits, above all in
regard to the wandering of our eyes and the effeminacy
of our attitude.
III. The Eucharist is the Eternal.
I. ADORATION.
PROSTRATE yourself reverently, and look with a feel
ing of ecstatic adoration at the Host consecrated but
yesterday, or at the Mass which has just ended. You
will see how fragile its existence is, for it depends
upon the sensible sign of bread, of appearances weaker
than the leaf of a tree carried away by a zephyr and
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist, 73
which the least pressure reduces into dust; well, be
lieve it, for it is the faith of the Church, based upon
the word of infallible Truth, that Host of a single day
is the Eternal!
It is the Eternal because it is "the Word which was
at the beginning, which was in God, which was God,
by whom all things were made."
It is the Eternal because it is He who is called "the
Beginning," and who said, " I and the Father are one."
Moreover, the signs of eternity appear clearly in the
Eucharist. What is eternity, what are its properties ?
Eternity is the total possession of life in its perfection,
that is to say, it is the past and the future fixed in an
immutable present; it is the absence of succession, of
formation, of transformation and of decrease; it is en
tire life always possessed, consequently it is infinite
life without origin, without limit, without end.
Now what does the Eucharist offer to our adora
tion ? The Incarnate Word, which is and will be; it
offers us His divinity and His eternal perfections, after
the model of which it forms us and deifies us; His
humanity with the example and the fruit of the whole
of His human life, of His passion and of His death;
His glorified humanity at the present moment, with
the foretaste of His glory and the graces necessary to
attain to it.
Now this past of the Incarnate Word, and this defin
itive glory, the Host always possesses in their pleni
tude; it is the point to which all the mysteries con
verge, without a single exception; is it not a striking-
manifestation of the eternity of Him whom it con
tains ?
Then, in the weaknesses of its appearances, the
Eucharist remains always the same, always as living,
always as vivifying, always as efficacious, and always
74 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
as good as when it issued from the heart, from the
word and the hands of the Saviour at the Last Supper.
It has seen men and empires pass away, itself im
movable and unchangeable; it has been a butt for the
attacks of heresy, of impiety, of violence and of per
secution, and it has resisted, stilled every tempest,
and bearing the fortunes of the Church and the
hopes of the world. Is not this marvellous duration
of so weak a sign a victorious demonstration of the
Eternal which it both conceals and discloses at one and
the same time?
Adore then, in the Blessed Sacrament, the Eternal,
the God who does not pass away, and offer Him the
homage of your life by dedicating it henceforth to His
service.
II. THANKSGIVING.
How lively a source of thanksgiving, descending
abundant and pure from the everlasting mountains, is
the contemplation of the Eternal in the Eucharist ?
If the Host be eternal, it is therefore the unchange
able good on which we may fix our uncertain hopes,
our inconstant will, our weak virtues, and the whole of
our unstable life!
It is, therefore, in the midst of the whirlwind of
created things, in which nothing endures for more than
a moment, in the torrent which carries away the affec
tions, the props, the dreams and the labors of human
life, the steadfast rock to which we can attach our
bark that we may not be carried away!
It is Eternity in time, and it brings us the foretastes,
the treasures, and the graces of eternity. Does not the
Saviour call it " the Bread of eternal life," the Bread
which enables us to live eternally, the Bread which re
deems from death and gives the very life itself of God ?
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 75
What does that mean, if it be not that this Bread gives
the plenitude of life, constancy in labor, perseverance
in good ? What does it mean, if it be not that he who
eats of it shares in a measure in the joys, in the as
surances, in the pledges, in the possession of the Eter
nal Good, of which is composed the blessed eternity
for those who have landed on the shores of the heav
enly country ?
Oh all you who have been overwhelmed by the
tempests of life, you who have suffered from the rav
ages of time, you who aspire ardently towards that
which endures forever, wearied with all that passes
away, raise your eyes, contemplate the Eternal in the
Host, receive Him and enter into and establish your
selves in Him from henceforth to eternity!
III. REPARATION.
It is good, in the presence of the Eternal, veiled be
hind the cloud of His condescension, to make a serious
examination as to the esteem in which we hold eternal
things, and as to the manner in which we prepare for
our eternity.
It is but too clear for it to need demonstration, that
eternity ought to have precedence over time, in the
same degree that the infinite is above the finite, the
perpetual above the temporary, the substance above
the shadow, life above death.
Our end, the reason why we were created, our labor
and our task is the acquisition of the Eternal Good;
neither knowledge, nor fortune, nor health, nor friend
ship, nor life, nothing which can be measured by time,
is our end. It is folly therefore and more than folly
to seek after it, to attach ourselves to it, to rest in it!
Folly, above all, to prefer possessions of a day to an
7 6 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
endless possession! Folly to allow ourselves to be
absorbed with cares about them, and thereby forget the
care of our eternity!
But as it is by labor, by suffering, by the merits ac
quired during time that we acquire eternal possessions,
woe to him who loses his time, who fritters it away,
who does not throughout the day give careful atten
tion to the task which is set him to accomplish and to
prepare his eternity. Each fugitive moment of time is
capable, if it be employed according to the will of God
and in His holy grace, of producing eternal fruit, of
working our eternal happiness and glory. In point of
fact, our eternity is in our own hands; it is our eter
nity which we compromise or make secure; it is our
eternity which we render happy or unhappy, it is life or
death eternal, heaven or hell forever, according as we
are faithful or not day by day, hour by hour, moment
by moment, to the duties of our state, to the impulses
of divine grace, to the indications of the will of God.
Oh creature of God, created in time for eternity,
weigh all things by the weight of thy eternity! It
will render thee serious,, wise, fearful, attentive; it is
the foundation of a Christian life.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask earnestly for grace and make a resolution fre
quently to meditate upon eternal truths. Do so above
all at the foot of the Sacrament, which will give you
the taste and will facilitate the exercise of such medi
tation.
If you desire thoroughly to know the price of eter
nity, the Saviour who resides therein will show you His
wound and will recall to you His humiliations, His suf
ferings and His death on the cross, which He endured
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 77
only to acquire eternity for you. He will tell you that
if, in spite of His glory, He redescends into the hu
miliation of the Eucharist, it is in order to assure
your eternity. Labor then and suffer for your eternity,
beneath His eyes and in virtue of the Bread of life.
Practice.
Never let a week pass without making at least one
meditation upon the price of eternity.
IV. The Eucharist is the Immensity.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE with profound reverence and absolute certi
tude God Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ present be
fore your eyes in the limits of the Sacred Host, so
compressed and so circumscribed, exposed in your
sight.
Then transport yourself in spirit into all the churches
of the town where you reside; into all the churches
of your diocese, into all those of your country; you
will everywhere find the Emmanuel of the Sacrament
as really present as He is here beneath your eyes.
But carry still further the flight of your thoughts;
cross over the frontiers of your own country, traverse
the kingdoms which border it to the North and the
South, the East and the West; pass over the seas; set
foot successively on all shores; everywhere you will
perceive, although they are often very humble and
very poor, Catholic churches; there also resides in
truth, and really present, the God before whom you
open your heart.
Does not this diffusion of the personal, perfect, and
78 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
integral presence of the Sacramental Christ, in all parts
of the world, give you an idea of the divine Immen
sity ?
Immensity is in God the perfection which renders
Him present everywhere in the totality of His being,
constitutes Him infinite, without possible limits, in
capable of being contained and enclosed, not only in
the limits of space, but in those of all created spirits.
Immensity renders God incomprehensible as well as
infinite.
Adore then the Immense in the Sacrament which
manifests this so clearly. See it extend itself not only
beyond all frontiers, but in all men, in the profoundest
depth of the human being, where it resides and acts by
the Communion. It is in each one of us in the per
fection of its being and of its life, all in all of us.
Then if you attempt to define it, it is a bottomless
abyss; by its divinity it reaches as high as the highest
heaven; by its sacramental abasements it descends
into the nameless frontiers of nothingness. Do not
attempt to make efforts of the intellect to understand
the mode of its presence, the link which attaches it to
the species, the manner in which they can subsist
without their natural substance; all these things are as
so many unfathomable abysses; faith alone with eyes
closed, and on its knees, in the adoration of what it
knows to be, without understanding it, — faith alone is
capable of rendering homage to the Immensity, to the
infinite, really contained and enclosed in the Blessed
Sacrament!
II. THANKSGIVING.
Bless, praise, and thank the most kind God with
sentiments of the liveliest gratitude for having willed
thus to manifest His Immensity in the Eucharist.
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 79
For it is thanks to the design of merciful love that
God is really our Emmanuel, that with us He traverses
the rough paths of our exile, that He keeps near us,
within reach of each one of us, amongst our homes,
two steps from us, permitting us never to lose sight
of Him, and to know that He is there. That He is
there, the good God who loves all that He has created,
the Saviour God who wills to assure the salvation of
all whom He has redeemed, the God who protects,
the God who heals, the God of all consolation, the
author of every perfect gift!
Thanks to the diffusion of the Immensity in the Host,
the exile is never alone, the forsaken without a friend,
the orphan without a father, the poor without a sup
port; God is there, God made man is everywhere
with men!
III. REPARATION.
This beneficent immensity of the God of the Host
singularly aggravates the indifference, the general for-
getfulness, the contempt which have become habitual,
which so many men, spite of their being baptized,
show, in practice, at least, and by their life, to the
Most Blessed Sacrament.
For it is for them that He has come back to this
world, in the humiliating conditions of His Eucharistic
life; they are His creatures, His redeemed, His con
quest; He has innumerable titles to their love and
their homage, and He comes in person to reclaim
them; He makes Himself known, He makes Himself
seen, He forces Himself upon them. What will they
answer when, having put aside the conditions of His
infinite condescension, He will appear in the splendor,
the power, and the terror of His vengeance, and will
So The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
say to them, "It is I." I whom you disowned, neg
lected, disdained, despised and rejected, even when
I was multiplying wonders and sacrifices to obtain the
fidelity of your hearts. You disdained My presence of
grace; be forever excluded from My presence of glory!
And they will fly from before the face of this irri
tated God; and above their head, in undying flames,
the apparition of the despised Host, the cause of their
condemnation, will shine with revenging splendor, and
will burn them more cruelly than even the flames of
hell.
IV. PRAYER.
Earnestly ask for grace to be always and everywhere
faithful to the presence of God in the Eucharist, spite
of human respect, raillery, and even persecution by the
world.
Ask that the Immensity may be always and every
where present to you, above all in the time of temp
tation and at the hour of your death.
Ask this last grace every day; it is that which will
decide your eternity.
Practice.
To live everywhere, by your heart and your inten
tion, in the presence of the Most Holy Sacrament.
V. The Eucharist is the God of Majesty.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE beneath the veils of the Sacrament, in the
sanctuary where He keeps Himself inaccessible to our
senses, the divine majesty of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. Si
It resides there with all its divine perfections, and it
shows itself there with imposing splendor. Yes, in
its weakness, in its littleness, in its obscurity, the
majesty of the thrice holy God shines with adorable
splendor.
You have many times, without being able to ex
plain it to yourself, perhaps, felt the impression of it
and of its influence. If you wish to penetrate by medi
tation or by study into the mystery of the Eucharist,
does not your reason feel itself suddenly arrested in
presence of a fathomless abyss of inaccessible heights,
of a darkness in which it would be inevitably lost if
it desired to penetrate into it by force ? In addition,
do you not feel yourself to be, as it were, impressed
with reverence and fear when you perceive the humble
Host which is presented to you for Communion, which
is raised to bless you? In proportion as you approach
the Tabernacle, does not the holiness of the Temple be
come more profound, more imposing, more majestic?
Well, these are rays of the divine Majesty. Majesty
in God is that glory so elevated, that splendor so daz
zling, that it renders God impenetrable and inaccess
ible to the creature, obliging him to close his eyes, to
prostrate himself and adore in silence. It is com
posed of the splendor, of the grandeur, of the mag
nificence which are appropriate to the divine Being, to
light uncreated, immensity without bounds, grandeur
without end.
It is evident that all these attributes place God out
of the reach of the creature whatever it may be; it is
also evident that too great a light blinds us, and by
obliging him who looks at it to close his eyes, en
velops him, for that very reason, in darkness.
This is true in the moral as well as the physical
order. Therefore, the Scriptures say that the King of
82 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
kings, the Lord of lords, dwells alone in inaccessible
light, which man never saw and never can see: Lucem
habitat inaccessibilem, quern nullus hominnm vtdit nee
•videre potest. It is also said that all men see it, so
much does it force itself upon all, but that they cannot
look at it except from afar. Omnes homines -vident
eum, unusquisque intuetur procul. (Job xxxvi. 25.)
Its too intense light is for us as an impenetrable
cloud; therefore Saint Denis says, as do the Scriptures,
that God dwells in the cloud, and that it is through
this cloud that He shows Himself to us: Deum ham-
tare in caligine, nee nisi per earn se patefacere mortali-
bus. (Ep. v.) He showed Himself thus to Moses and
to the people, in caligine nubis. And it is thus also
that He shows Himself in the cloud of the Sacrament;
overawing us by the reverence and the fear which He
inspires, but concealing Himself in the abysses of mys
tery, inaccessible to every finite intelligence.
Acknowledge Him then in the darkness of the Eu-
charistic cloud, and let His obscurity, too profound to
be a thing created, make you recognize Him as your
God; infinite mystery proclaims God as much as in
finite power: Vere tu es Deus absconditus, Deits Israel
Salvator !
II. THANKSGIVING.
Who is there that would not be touched, in the ut
most depth of his heart, by the ineffable goodness of
our God, who has rendered so sweet to the eye the
cloud which contains His glory, and so accessible to
the soul, if not to reason, the awful darknesses of the
Eucharistic mystery ?
The sacred species are as sweet to the sight as is the
cloud which, passing over the burning midday sun,
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 83
moderates its heat, shades its light, and permits the eye
to rest upon its graceful transparency. Studied with
the heart, the Eucharistic mystery is as limpid as is
love, as is generosity, as is goodness: is it not so? Is
there any father, any son, any friend, who, being able
to do so, would not have instituted the Sacrament of
his immortal presence that he might remain with his
family, that he might console his mother, that he
might help friends who had left all for him ? And if
you look steadfastly at the Sacrament, telling yourself
that God is there, the God of majesty, before whom
the angels veil their faces with trembling, does it not
appear to you to be inexpressibly condescending of
Him to veil Himself to such an extent that you can
contemplate Him at ease ?
Ah! give thanks, love; His infinite majesty is en
veloped in the veils of goodness!
III. REPARATION.
Remember that in the presence of majesty there is
but one attitude, reverence; and that when that maj
esty is the majesty of God, adoration.
Examine yourself with regard to your attitude in the
presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Exterior
reverence: modesty of the eyes and in your demeanor:
dignity and appropriateness in your dress, in your be
havior, and in your attitude; strict silence, religious
and sacred; the genuflections and prostrations pre
scribed by the Church. Interior reverence: the imagi
nation subjugated, distractions put aside, the mind
fixed, all the interior being occupied with the majesty
of God, present there, attentive there, and there await
ing our homage.
Ah! what a terrible judgment we shall be subjected
84 The. Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
to and what purgatory for our forgetfulness of the di
vine majesty, the way in which we have disowned His
sovereign rights, our irreverence in His presence!
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for the grace and make the resolution to observe
reverence in presence of the Most Holy Sacrament, and
respect for everything which bears a reflection of the
majesty of the God of the Sacrament; churches, ceme
teries, sacristies, and relics; priests, religious; the cere
monies and.customs of the Church; the word of God
and pious pictures. In every place where the majesty
of God resides, let us reverence and adore.
Practice.
The most absolute silence in church, keeping it so
religiously that we will not permit any one to break it
in our presence.
VI. The Eucharist is the Omnipotent.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE the Word made flesh, this Word which is
the Almighty, since "all things were made by Him, and
without Him was made nothing that was made," really
and substantially present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
Acknowledge Him in the weakness of the Sacra
ment which appears so powerless, being devoid of all
exterior action, of all perceptible strength, and yet, if
you look more closely and with a more lively faith,
you will see that the Eucharist is one of the most
striking manifestations of the omnipotence of God,
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 85
Omnipotence is that attribute of God by means of
which He can effect all that He wills. His principal
work is the creation of the world, when He made all
that is out of nothing, both in heaven and on earth,
without preexisting matter, without means, simply by
an application of His infinite power, exterior to the
super-adorable circle in which move the three divine
Persons, and by a word which manifested His sov
ereign action.
The three marvels which shine in honor of omnipo
tence, in the greatest marvel of creation, consist in the
infirmity, the powerlessness of the starting point:
nothingness; in the simplicity and extreme energy of
the means: the will and the word of God; in the per
fection and the value of the works produced: heaven
and its luminous worlds, the earth and its inexhaustible
fecundity, man with his reason, the angels in their
strength and the beauty of their spiritual nature.
Well, behold marvels greater still shining forth in
the Eucharist, and you will recognize the Omnipotent.
What is man in relation to God? Less than nothing;
man nevertheless commands, and God obeys. What is
the bread with its appearances, in regard to the ador
able flesh of the Man-God ? It is nevertheless this
bread which through the influence of a few words is
about to become the flesh of Jesus Christ, and to en
velop Him and contain Him under its appearances.
It is, in fact, at the sound of the human voice, whis
pering a few syllables, that this marvel of the produc
tion of the Eucharist is performed. These few words
suffice to subdue and to bow down vanquished and
obedient the opposition of the most powerful of nat
ural forces: quantity, extension, place, time. These
words are repeated every hour, without an effort, even
perhaps with distractions, by all priests; each time they
86 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
reproduce the same operation, and obtain the same
victory over nature.
And this work of power, what is it? The marvel
of marvels, the work of ages, the triumph of the right
hand of the Most High, the masterpiece of the Holy
Spirit, the Incarnate Word, at once perfect God and
ideal man, the typical man, Our Lord Jesus Christ!
Ah! how entirely this work, in its unique splendor,
makes all other works of the Most High pale and insig
nificant! The Holy Spirit confesses it and wills that
we should adore it as the epitome of all His marvels.
How powerful God is, contemplated by the light of
the Eucharist!
II. THANKSGIVING.
This marvel of omnipotence is active; it produces
other marvels which are all of them performed for our
good, and which, by still more revealing the Almighty,
ought to increase our gratitude.
Although produced to-day, the Host contains the
whole part of the Saviour; it renews by the sacrificial
act in reality His passion and His death with all their
effects of redemption. And food of unique form and
sweetness, it is adapted to the most contradictory
needs, giving life and death, strength and sweetness,
appeasing and exciting, grieving and rejoicing, accord
ing to the desire and the end of each. A material ali
ment, it is upon souls that it acts, that its spiritual ef
fects are produced; its marvellous fruits are the con
version and the transformation of sinners, the persever
ance of the most feeble of Christians and of the most
exposed, heroic patience, the apostolate and martyr
dom; it is it also which renders the Church one, holy
and immortal. It possesses the virtue of raising up men
who will reproduce it to the end of all things. Lastly,
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 87
it is it which sanctifies agony, triumphs over death,
and opens heaven!
"Oh salutary Host," how true it is that Thou art
omnipotent! But also how thankfully I proclaim that
Thou art all goodness!
III. REPARATION.
The great sin, in which there are many degrees,
against the Omnipotence of the Sacrament, which only
shows us its power that it may be a help to our weak
ness, is to neglect it, to disdain it, and to reduce it,
with respect to the good which it might do us, to a
sorrowful inaction.
For it will produce its powerful effects of sanctifica-
tion in us only if we draw near to it, if we receive it,
giving up ourselves freely to its action. Instead of this,
we count on ourselves, we seek after human means,
we rest upon the creature, in a word, we remain in
ourselves and not in Him, though He has said,
" Without Me you can do nothing." And bearing no
fruits as long as we live in the world, we are good
for nothing when the Sovereign Master snatches us
away. from it but to be cast into the fire like useless
vine-shoots.
How long shall we inflict on the Omnipotence of the
Host the injury of refusing His help, His strength, and
to accuse Him of powerlessness by our lamentable falls
or our equally sad lukewarmness ?
IV. PRAYER.
The remedy for this evil, the grace to ask for, the
resolution to make, is to ask henceforth "by the Eu
charist, with the Eucharist, in the Eucharist: per Ipsum
et cum Ipso et in Ipso."
88 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
It is to live more closely united with it by prayer, to
have recourse to it with confidence; it is to employ it
more for others. It is then that the Almighty, finding
in us docile instruments, will accomplish marvels, and
will reveal that He who is hidden by the sacramental
veils is indeed the Creator and the master of heaven
and of earth.
Practice.
To undertake nothing without recommending our
selves explicitly to the Almighty of the Sacrament.
VII. The Eucharist is Divine Holiness.
.. ADORATION.
ADORE the Most Blessed Sacrament with the most
profound humility and the most sincere repentance
for your sins; and repeat with the angels and saints,
who adore God on His throne of glory, the canticle of
their eternal adoration, ''Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord
the God of hosts." Yes, thrice holy, and holiness it
self is the Sacrament which the Church, the voice of
the people, calls "The Most Holy Sacrament."
Holy it is, because it contains really and in person
Jesus Christ, who is perfect holiness. In Jesus, who
is in the Blessed Sacrament acknowledge first the
eternal holiness, the increate and infinite, which He
possesses as the Word, conjointly with the Father
and the Holy Spirit. This holiness is, in Him, the
divine attribute which renders Him perfectly good,
true, incapable of all error as well as of all stain. It
separates Him essentially from all that is defective,
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 89
imperfect, weak. The Word is in the Sacrament; He
is there, then, with all His divine holiness.
Adore, also, in the Host the created holiness of Jesus
Christ; I mean thereby the gifts of holiness which
were deposited in His soul on the day of its creation,
gifts so great that Saint Paul calls them "infinite
treasures; " gifts so perfect that they rendered the hu
manity of Jesus sufficiently holy to become worthy of
the love, the preference and the choice of the Son of
God, who took it as His spouse.
Adore lastly, in the Host, all the virtues, all the ex
amples given by the holy life of Jesus, for all is
therein, Christ having made of this Sacrament the
memorial of all the marvels of holiness and of love of
His human life.
Adore then the Holy of holies in the Sacrament,
and behold the rays of His holiness shining all around
the tabernacle, in the vases and linen of the sacrifice,
which its contact separates from the use of men and
renders sacred; in that portion of the temple which is
nearest to it, and which, on that account, is called
"the Sanctuary ; " in the holiness which is called for and
rendered imperative on those who have to do with the
Blessed Sacrament, because it is supremely necessary
to be holy in order to consecrate and receive it. The
holiness of the Blessed Sacrament envelops even its
minister and makes of him a venerable man worthy
of all respect.
" Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord, the God of hosts
in the Most Blessed Sacrament."
II. THANKSGIVING.
But here, as everywhere else, the goodness of Jesus
is united to His holiness, in order to render it sweet,
beneficent, and advantageous to our infirmities.
90 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
Jesus, who allows His holiness to appear in the
Sacrament to strike our eyes and to make us adore
Him, tempers and conceals it sufficiently not to alarm
our unworthiness. If the Sun of all purity were to
dart His rays fully upon us, who would dare to ap
proach Him ? Who would not fear His presence, and
who would not be covered with shame at the idea
that the reflection of the holiness of Jesus, by shining
upon his unworthiness, would reveal its defects to
every eye ?
No, He wills that we should be holy, but only that
He may help us to imitate Him. Therefore, study His
virtues in the Eucharist: His humility, His patience,
His gentleness, His constancy; they provoke imitation
and never cause discouragement.
This holiness, the example of which He shows in
His Eucharistic state, is a feast, where the soul is re
newed, is purified, and feeds truly upon holiness, ap
propriating to itself its qualities, its virtues, its instincts ;
even as the body appropriates the juices of the different
aliments which nourish it.
Bless the Holy One of God for being willing to see
us holy to such an extent, that He has given Himself
up to us to be the bread of all holiness.
III. REPARATION.
" Sanctify yourselves, for I am holy," said the Lord
to the priests of the Old Law, and to all those who
brought victims for the sacrifice. What then cannot
but be our obligation to sanctify ourselves in order to
approach the Holy of holies Himself, to appear in His
presence, to receive Him in communion ?
Therefore it is a horrible sacrilege to communicate
in a state of mortal sin; it is to tread under foot "the
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 91
Holy One." Therefore it is a horrible profanation to
touch the adorable Host with unconsecrated hands.
Therefore it is an abuse of the Bread of holiness to
receive it often without becoming holy.
But, at the same time, see how easy are the condi
tions of the holiness which He requires from us: first,
not to have any mortal sin upon our conscience when
we communicate; second, to strive after the holiness
of a Christian life, which consists in the faithful,
courageous, and constant observance of the will of
God.
Whoever is in this state receives the Sacra
ment of holiness with profit; he has a right to
communicate with the saints, he forms a portion of
the assembly of the saints, of which the Lamb is at
once the centre, the light, and the aliment.
Repair by acts of contrition all the indignities com
mitted against the awful holiness of the Sacrament,
kept in chains by its goodness.
IV. PRAYER.
Listen to the prayer of the Eucharist uttered by Jesus
Christ at the Last Supper, which He repeats in the
Sacrament throughout all ages: "Father, sanctify
them in truth; for them do I sanctify Myself, that they
also may be sanctified in truth. And not for them only
do I pray, but for all who through their word shall
believe in Me."
Let us echo this fervent prayer; let us ask for the
holiness of our state, and let us take every possible
means for corresponding to the graces of sanctifica-
tion, which will be always abundantly given us by the
Holy One of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
92 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
Practice.
To take from the Eucharist examples of the virtues
proper to our state, and to purify ourselves ceaselessly
in honor of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
VIII. The Eucharist is Divine Goodness.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE in the sweet and most beneficent and gra
cious Host before which you are prostrate the infinite
goodness of God.
Goodness is amongst the perfections of God the
one which touches us the most, the one which we un
derstand the best, because it concerns us, has the crea
ture as its object, and shows itself in dazzling mani
festations. It consists in the exterior effusion of God,
in the communication made to creatures of the riches,
the excellences, the perfection proper to the divine
nature.
Goodness is the movement of the love of God for
the creature; it is the overflow of His love, the effu
sion of the source of all good, the rays of the centre of
all life. To love is to give and give one's self. Divine
goodness gives all that is in God, it ends by giving
God Himself. Divine goodness, because it is infinite,
gives without exhaustion, without weariness; it ex
tends itself to all beings, and from the highest of the
seraphim down to the blade of grass in the meadow
there is not a being which does not receive of it, which
is not vivified, sustained, enriched, perfected by it.
All that they have they receive from this divine good
ness. Its effusions are incessant, continuous, and will
never end.
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 93
Now see if divine goodness does not appear in the
Eucharist. What do I say ? The Eucharist is its
triumph! What is the Eucharist if it be not the gift,
the supreme gift, bestowed upon all, given always,
which contains and which gives all other gifts? It is
the gratuitous gift, unexpected, unhoped for, unde
served. It is the total gift, the gift without reserve,
the gift without return. If the characteristic of good
ness is to give, the Eucharist is divine goodness itself,
for it is the exclusive, absolute gift, the perfect gift, the
living gift always bestowed.
Adore, praise the God of all goodness which the
Eucharistic veils show to you; attach yourselves to
Him; give Him love for love, gift for gift.
II. THANKSGIVING.
We cannot conceive goodness without its possess
ing the appearances of gentleness, of benevolence, of
affability, of condescension and of patience. These
qualities add to goodness what perfume adds to the
splendor of a flower. He is not simply and thoroughly
good who gives harshly, haughtily, and impatiently.
He knew this well, the good Master who has clothed
His infinite goodness with so much sweetness and
benignity: whether in the crib under the charms of
His infancy, whether in His public life under the clem
ency of His word and the amenity of His manners;
whether in His passion under the generosity of His
pardon and His unceasing patience!
Therefore, desirous to make in the institution of the
Sacrament the last, the most abundant, and the most
sublime of the effusions of His goodness, He has as
sumed a manner of being and an exterior as benevo
lent as possible: the exterior of bread and wine, which
94 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
every one loves and which is the strength and the joy
of every man here below; mystery, silence, weakness,
so favorable to the little, to the feeble, to sinners;
the veil of a patience which bears all, of a longanimity
which no ingratitude wearies. Nevertheless, for who
ever has faith the Sacrament preserves enough light,
enough sweetness to attract and charm, and to render
the presence of Jesus, the substantial image of the
divine goodness, recognizable and lovable.
Ah! how can we study all the attractions of the
Eucharist and not be overcome with gratitude at the
sight of this surplus of love which the divine goodness
adds to its best gift ?
III. REPARATION.
Explain then, if you can, or rather shed tears of
grief in presence of the dark and incomprehensible
mystery of the coldness, the indifference, the hardness,
the egotism, the ingratitude, and the hatred even of
man towards the Eucharist! Is there anything more
sad, anything more horrible or which ought more
to humiliate us and to excite us to make reparation ?
To Him who offers Himself, gives Himself, delivers
Himself up and diffuses Himself with the most gener
ous kindness, the multitude of men respond by cold
ness and by indifference. To Him who clothes Him
self with sweetness and benevolence that He may gain
hearts more easily, they respond by their coldness
and their disdain. To Him who only knows how to
love, to love passionately, unceasingly, there are men
who render in return, cold, cruel, and irreconcilable
hatred.
How all this enables us to comprehend the sorrow
ful complaint of the Heart of this adorable Victim of
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 95
His too great goodness! Let us then be good to Him,
gentle, benevolent, and compassionate, we whom He
calls His friends and whose pity He implores. " Mis
er emini met, miser emini mei, saltern vos amid mei! "
IV. PRAYER.
Goodness is the firmest support of prayer; it infuses
hope into the heart; it sustains confidence; it enables
us to know how to await the hour of God, to bear
with its delay, not to murmur at its seeming refusal,
to accept the prolongation of the trial without any
doubt of being at last heard. Therefore when we
pray we ought to found our petitions upon the good
ness shown by the Eucharist, which the gifts and the
benefits of the Eucharist prove. Let us then never
pray without saying, like Saint Paul, "If God has
given us His Son, how shall He not with Him give us
all things ? "
Practice.
To meditate often upon the goodness of Jesus in the
gift and in the mode of the Eucharist, that we may en
tertain a firm confidence in Him.
IX. The Eucharist is Providence.
I. ADORATION.
IN the silence of the tabernacle and in the shroud
of the sacred species, where He seems to be plunged
into the sleep of insensibility, adore God and His
adorable Providence, which watches over you, pro-
96 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
vides for your needs, and leads you with as much gen
tleness as wisdom through a thousand obstacles to
your eternal end.
The sacred Host is not only one of the benefits
which best manifest the wisdom and goodness of
divine providence; it is also that blessed Providence
itself, for it is God in truth.
Providence is in God the attribute whereby He pre
serves what He has created; but it is also more than
this; it is the sum total of the means by which His
power infallibly conducts all beings to the end which
eternal wisdom has assigned to them. Preservation is
the continuation of the act of goodness of which the
first effusion was poured forth in giving life to created
beings; so that Providence seems to be composed of
goodness, of power, and of divine wisdom. Good
ness, which assigns the end, that is to say, the supreme
perfection of every being. Wisdom, which traces the
path which every one must tread to arrive at it, which
chooses the means leading to it. Power, which applies
them, defending every creature against what is an ob
stacle to His preservation, snatching it from perils, and
disposing all towards its end with a strength which
nothing can resist.
We depend upon this omnipotent Providence in
everything and in all ways, in the order of grace no
less than in that of nature. Free creatures, but not in
dependent in regard to the First Cause, we are ruled,
led, governed by it, whether we will or not. If we
cooperate with its views we shall proceed towards
our blessed end, without any obstacle being able to
stop us, without any error seriously affecting us;
for it knows how to change defeats into victories,
to accomplish marvels of strength with weakness,
even to draw life out of death. If, on the contrary,
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 97
we resist its guidance, besides this resistance being-
culpable, a patient Providence permits it for a time,
through designs well known to itself; but even
then we remain beneath its empire. It makes use of
us to try the good and to manifest its condescension
and supreme independence, which has no need of any
one to perform its works; but it keeps us under its
galling yoke like rebel slaves, and, sooner or later, here
below, or after death, it gives us up to divine Justice,
which revenges inexorably.
Let us adore the divine Providence behind the Eu-
charistic cloud; let us yield to its influence as docile
instruments; let us give ourselves unreservedly up to
its guidance.
II. THANKSGIVING.
The end which God proposed to Himself in the
work of creation is to diffuse liberally outside Himself
something of His life and of His infinite perfections.
Providence, which has as its principal characteristic
goodness and benevolence, executes this design and
brings it to a conclusion: "It is Thy providence, oh
Father, which governs all things."
Behold and see how this characteristic of vigilant
and indefatigable goodness shines forth in the Eucha
rist! Is it not shown to all? from the child to the
aged, from the subject to the king, from the east to
the west, and from the north to the south, does it not
offer itself to all every day, that it may be to them all
in all ? And does it not bring visible, immediate protec
tion to all the points of the universe by means of its
universal presence ? All tabernacles are posts of ob
servation for it, whence it sees, watches over and pro
tects everything. And every day devout souls find
the table set by its maternal care! And when one
98 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
of its own children groans upon a bed of suffering,
it causes succor to be taken to it, the viaticum of im
mortality!
Ah! if we only knew how we are seen, known,
watched over, attentively and indefatigably protected
by the sweet Providence which dwells in our valley of
combats, beneath the white veil of the Sacrament, what
confidence we should have in it!
III. REPARATION.
What then is not the crime of those who openly
deny divine Providence! What is not the hurtful error
of those who, without denying it, live without having
recourse to it! Pagan wisdom itself condemns the first
class, not allowing them to maintain their blasphemy:
Pocnam meretur qui Providentiam negat.
Is it not monstrous, in fact, to deny the omnipotent
Workman while beholding His magnificent work, to
deny His wisdom in presence of the beautiful order of
nature, to reject goodness when everything speaks to
us of its liberality and its condescension ?
Nevertheless, how numerous and audacious are the
blasphemers who defy divine Providence, and pro
claim the independence of reason, of conscience and
of human nature in the presence of God! Then there
are all the indifferent, who in their need do not pray; all
those who, more or less consciously, seek for support
only in themselves or in their neighbors; these also sin
against divine Providence.
Their fault appears still greater because of the pres
ence which the Providence of our God has chosen for
itself in the Eucharist. It has there collected together
all its means of succor, by rendering itself personally
and sensibly present in it; consequently he who does
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 99
not come to the Eucharist, who does not supplicate it,
who does not receive it in proportion to the whole ex
tent of his needs, also acts contrary to divine Provi
dence. He languishes, he becomes weak and soon
dies of inanition; and his suffering, far from being ex
cusable, is imputed to him as a crime, because he re
fused in his foolish pride, the aliment and the succor
which the Providence of his Father had presented to
him with inexhaustible liberality.
Examine the reality and the extent of these sins
against Providence and make reparation for them with
ardent zeal.
IV. PRAYER.
The best reparation will be the resolution, faithfully
kept, to live personally under the guidance of divine
Providence, given up submissively and abandoned to
all its designs, to all its means, to all its ways, recog
nizing and adoring it everywhere, in all things.
Practice.
Every day renew this promise to serve and honor
Providence; make the morning communion, which
ought to inaugurate each one of our days, the means
of a new gift, of an abandonment more and more
sincere and perfect to the adorable Providence.
X. The Eucharist is the Sovereign Lord.
I. ADORATION.
PROSTRATE yourself, with all the reverence, all the
fear of which you are capable, in presence of the ador-
ioo The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
able Sacrament, saluting it as your Master and your
Sovereign Lord.
Adore, with one sole glance of your love, the abso
lute, universal, eternal empire over all things which
ought necessarily to be possessed by Him who has
made all out of nothing, and without whom nothing
could maintain its existence for a single moment!
Make to His sovereign dominion the glorious con
fession which Esther made in her confident prayer:
" Lord, God Almighty, all things are under Thy domin
ion and there is nothing which can resist Thy will, for
it is Thou who hast made heaven and earth and all
that they contain; Thou art the Sovereign Master of all
things."
The sovereign dominion of God consists in these
two particulars. First, that everything belongs to Him
exclusively and that He can make of whatever exists
any use that He pleases, to grant life or to inflict death,
to embellish or to degrade, to lead to its perfection or
to annihilate it, all this comes under the domain of
ownership. Second, that He may prescribe, forbid,
permit, recompense, and punish, according as it
shall so please Him; all this belongs to the domain of
jurisdiction.
These two domains are limitless, without end, reach
all creatures, even in their essence and their existence;
of neither one nor the other has He to render ac
count to any one. It is because God is the one, sole
Author both of the creation and the preservation
of all beings; they have nothing of their own, and
coming from God are nothing in themselves. They
can do nothing, they cannot perform a single act,
or form a single thought, except by the vital help of
God.
Oh adorable and lofty dominion! Oh what pro-
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist 101
found, limitless, perpetual adoration it merits, what
obedience, what active and faithful cooperation!
But behold how the rights and the acts of the su
preme dominion of God shine forth in the Host which
is subjected and given up to the creature! See how
lovingly it insists: "Eat, drink; he who eats has life,
he who eats not is dead." See if it be not the mistress
of the world, this Host which diffuses itself every
where, on all shores, in all countries, and installs itself,
adored by all peoples, in all ages! See how it com
mands reverence; how it is approached; see how it
renders obligatory the practice of virtues, purity, de
tachment, humility, obedience; how it reigns over the
world by means of the innumerable ministers who
compose the splendid hierarchy of the Church, and who
are all, in their several grades, nothing more than the
servants, the heralds, the apostles of its sovereign em
pire, charged before and above all things with the ob
ligation of bringing souls under submission to the
Eucharist, to render them conformable to it, to deliver
them up to it that it may reign in each one of them,
even as it reigns over the whole of religious society.
Adore then the Sovereign Host, and give to it its true
name, "The King of kings, the Lord of lords."
II. THANKSGIVING.
Although the sovereign dominion of God is exer
cised from such a height that it would seem to inspire
us with fear rather than with confidence, although the
title of Lord appears to be rather one of power than
one of kindness, nevertheless it is good, benevolent,
and very suitable for exciting an act of thanksgiving.
Is it not in fact an honor and a blessing to belong to
a master such as God is, and to belong exclusively to
102 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
Him ? For all those on whom we depend derive their
authority from Him alone. It is in truth the one, sole,
sovereign Master whom we obey. Then what is the
object which the Master has in view in the government
of His creature unless it be to perfect it, to lead it to
the glorious end He has prepared for it by creating it
in His loving kindness ? Is not all this supremely
good ?
But it is above all when it exercises its dominion
through the Eucharist that the sovereign dominion of
God shows itself to be beneficent and sweet. What
kindness, what sweetness, what condescension in the
manner in which He presents Himself to us! Is there
anything less imperious in its form than the humble
and amiable Host of our tabernacles ? and how does
it will to reign in us, by what title ? by what means ?
By force, violence, terror? No! love, nothing but
love! With what reverence our Sovereign treats us!
How He insinuates Himself, waits, exercises patience,
submits to our delays, even to our revolts, desirous as
He is to reign over hearts subjugated by love alone!
Ah! reflect upon the way in which the Lord, in the
benignity of His Sacrament, acts towards you, and
thanksgiving, ecstasy, and gratitude will burst forth in
hymns of praise from your heart!
III. REPARATION.
The crime is therefore great of all those who pre
tend that they and the gifts they have received from
God belong to themselves, and that they can make
whatever use of them that they please, without tak
ing any account of the will of Him who remains the
lofty owner of all that He gives to man and of man
himself.
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 103
This crime became the crime of different societies
when they proclaimed as their one sole law, "the
rights of man" Rights of man exterior to those
which God grants him and which are summed up in
the right of obeying Him freely ? Rights over whom,
over what? Is it not to the owner alone that rights
belong ? And man has nothing of his own, absolutely
nothing; neither his thoughts, nor his conscience, nor
his social position; liberty of thought, of conscience,
of society, then, are blasphemies against divine au
thority.
Make reparation, by declaring that you recognize
nothing except the rights of God, which guarantee all
holy liberties, of which the principle regulating all
others is to be able to tend freely to your eternal end,
beneath the sovereign authority of God.
Make reparation, above all, in adoring and in exalting,
by means of public and solemn worship, the Lord in
the Sacrament where He has placed Himself that He
may reign, which He Himself calls the footstool and
the throne of His glory.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for the grace and make the resolution always
practically to recognize the sovereign rights of God
over you, by the observation of His commandments,
correspondence with His inspirations, and above all by
submission to His will in trials. In this, above all, lies
the difficulty. We find it hard to admit that our
adorable Master, our Creator has a right to make of
us and do with us all that pleases Him, and yet every
thing belongs to Him. Have, then, confidence enough
in His wisdom to be certain that He will not be de-
104 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
ceived, and in His goodness to believe that He will not
abuse it.
Practice.
Let our motive then be, with regard to our sovereign
Lord, that of Jesus Himself, " Ita, Pater, quoniam sic
placitiim est ante te ! Yes, Father, since so it pleases
Thee."
XI. The Eucharist is the Supreme Judge.
I. ADORATION.
ACKNOWLEDGE and adore, with salutary fear, in the
Sacrament which appears before your eyes, the awful
judge of the living and the dead. Yes, in spite of His
silence, His gentleness and the benignity of His aspect,
the sweet and patient Host is the -God of justice with
out appeal, and of vengeance without mercy. Is He
not the God who, having created all things, has a right
to ordain all things, and if His orders are not executed
to punish the disobedient? Is He not the God who is
the necessary end of all things, because He is the sole
principle of them, and we must fall into His hands
whether we will or no ? Is He not, lastly, the su
preme Master, who owes no account to any one of His
will and of His works, consequently judging every
thing supremely and without appeal ? Who is there
that dare say to Him, " Why dost Thou judge us thus ? "
Adore then in trembling, with eyes cast down and
with your face covered with confusion, in the trou
ble which seizes every guilty man in the presence
of his judge, adore in the divine Sacrament the clear
sighted judge from whom nothing is hid; the incor-
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 105
ruptible judge, who cannot be seduced by anything;
the awful judge, whose irrevocable sentences last
throughout eternity.
But more than this, the Host is the risen Man-God
who has acquired, by the fact of His death and of
His victory, a fresh right to judge the living and
the dead. Already participating in the judicial power
of God from the time of His union with the Word,
Christ has merited by the infamous judgments and
the iniquitous condemnations pronounced against
Him to receive as compensation the glory and honor
of judging all mankind. When, at the last day,
He appears in His splendor before all trembling
generations gathered together, He will enjoy in
its plenitude the eminent prerogative of supreme
judge of the living and the dead. What authority!
what power! what majesty! what glory! He alone
will speak; and each of His sentences, immediately
executed, will extend over all eternity. Oh, adore
your awful judge, veiled, condescending and full
of patience in His Sacrament. Remember that
in His humble retreat of the Host He sees and
judges all your actions, all your desires, all your
thoughts.
He sees and judges them with entire truth, by the
measure of His graces, of His help, of the means and
the facilities which He gives you to live according to
His will, according to the duties of your state, your graces
of vocation, the privileged appeals of His love. Nothing
escapes Him, and none of the lying reasons with which
we cover the eyes of our soul, none of the pretexts which
we employ to quiet our conscience and to deceive
ourselves, nothing whatever of this kind can seduce or
deceive Him. He judges us by the penetrating light of
His infallible truth !
io6 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
Never approach Him, then, except whilst judging
yourself, condemning yourself mercilessly, and making
humbly and frankly honorable amends.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Thank the terrible Judge of the last day for making
Himself the merciful and patient Judge of each day in
the Sacred Host. He sees our faults, and He knows all
the heinousness of them; they humiliate and insult His
holiness, they make His love suffer, He holds them in
horror. Spite of that, because He has established His
Sacrament in patience and mildness, He dissimulates,
He appears as though He did not see; nay more, He
immolates Himself to destroy our faults, and to obtain
pardon for them, together with the graces of a sincere
conversion.
Another blessing of the divine Justice in the Eucha
rist is, that it invites us and leads us to judge ourselves
with severity, if we do not wish to be judged at the
last day by the supreme Judge. " If we judge ourselves
before eating the flesh of the Lord we shall not be
judged." An easy judgment to draw up, to pronounce,
and to execute is that which we make every morning
on the actions of the preceding day, beneath the eyes
of a kind Saviour, with the encouraging prospect of
receiving as the price of our frankness and our humility
the recompense of a good communion, which is a
foretaste of the eternal recompense.
Lastly, another beneficent effect of the presence of
the God of justice in the Eucharist is the hunger and
thirst after justice which seizes those who receive it
worthily. Their heart becomes enamored of good
and is full of ardor against evil. They aim at the best,
at the most perfect, without pity for nature, flesh, and
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 107
blood. They arm themselves in order to punish in
their own persons — after punishing their own sins,
which are only trivial but which they look upon as
crimes — the sins of others, striving to complete in them,
for the Church, the Passion of Jesus Christ and offer
ing themselves together with the Eucharistic Victim, to
the blows of revenging justice to satisfy it and snatch
from it the guilty.
Thank, then, the supreme Judge, who knows how
by means of this Sacrament, wherein all is changed
into love for us, to render even His terrible justice
sweet to contemplate and fruitful in blessings.
III. REPARATION.
But what is not the crime, and what will not the
merciless punishment be, of those who despise the con
descension, the patience, and the veil of merciful dis
simulation in which the sovereign Judge envelops
Himself in the Sacrament! They judge Him after their
own passions and interests, and they impute to Him,
often with ignominy and derision, inability and error;
some, who are guilty of sacrilege, deliver Him up to
Satan in their heart; others, who are profaners, sub
ject Him to the most iniquitous torments.
Ah ! the patience of God, whom they despise,
accumulates chastisements upon their head ; they
"treasure up the divine anger" — a frightful prospect!
The God of justice, who will have extended even be
yond its most improbable limits His goodness, His
mercy, and His patience; the avenging God, who will
have borne everything in silence, allowing the impious
to triumph against Him on account of His silence and
of His patience; the God made man, the just and the in
nocent One, who from excessive love to man has con-
io8 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
sented to submit in the Eucharist, century after century,
to the iniquitous judgments and the abominable con
demnations already endured in His Passion — Jesus
Christ will take His revenge at the last day! Ah! how
terrible He will be when He shall have armed Himself
against us with these Hosts which are so much despised,
so much forsaken, so often judged, so much con
demned!
If the punishment be in proportion to the love which
has been disowned, then the disowned love of the
Eucharist, where God carries it to its last limits, will
call for a chastisement which will drain the abysses of
the divine anger: Infinem!
IV. PRAYER.
Let us ask, every day of our life, by the goodness,
the merits, and the sacrifice of our sovereign Judge in
the Eucharist, for the grace of an indulgent and merci
ful judgment at the last day. Let us gain our judge
over to our cause by honoring Him, by prepossessing
Him in our favor, by accustoming ourselves through
assiduous intercourse with Him to become acquainted
with His views and to think, judge, and will like Him.
Let the moment of our communions be the moment
of a severe and just judgment, formed in the light of
the holiness of God, of the example given by Jesus
Christ and by His Spirit; in the light of the suffer
ings and the terrible death which He endured for our
sins.
Let us form this judgment in order to purify ourselves
and prepare to receive it properly ; let us sum it up after
the preamble in order to correct ourselves, to prevent
a repetition of our faults, and to accomplish the penal
ties imposed on us, in a holy spirit of justice. Let us
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 109
delight in saying to our Judge seated in the Sacrament
on the throne of His mercy, let us take pleasure in re
peating the holy prayer of the Church, "Oh supreme
Judge of just vengeance, grant me full pardon before
the day of the last accounts! I sigh like a criminal, my
cheeks blush with shame; have pity on me, my God,
and hear my prayer. Thou who didst absolve Magda
len and granted the petition of the thief, I have placed
all my hope in Thee! All my prayers are insufficient,
but Thou who art so good enable me by Thy mercy to
escape eternal fires!
"Set me on Thy right hand amidst Thy blessed
sheep; separate me from the accursed goats!"
XII. The Eucharist is the God of Mercy.
I. ADORATION.
LET us adore, beneath the sacramental veil, which
renders it so sweet in aspect, so easy to approach, the
awful God present in the Sacrament; adore the perfec
tion of His divine being, which seems to have ourselves
only for its object and its cause, and which calls
itself by that name so often invoked and so sweet
—divine mercy.
Divine mercy! It is the goodness of God redoubled,
His love the conqueror of justice, the perfection which
seems, in a being where all is equally perfect, to take
the lead of all the divine perfections and to crown them
with an added splendor; for He has said: "Overall
His works, His mercy!"
Divine mercy is the patience which God exercises in
bearing with the sinner, the delays imposed on the de
crees of divine justice ready to be executed, the veil
no The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
beneath which He who sees everything seems to hide
that He may not see; it is the loving kindness which
continues gifts, preservation, graces without end, as
though they were not abused; it is the consecutive,
indefatigable labor of a Providence, always eager to
arrange with supreme skill opportunities for reforma
tion and means of conversion. It is, above all, kind
ness in receiving the sinner, the sincerity and the pleni
tude of the pardon, the perfection of the rehabilitation,
which destroys sin in its deepest roots, changes scar
let into snow, makes all acquired rights live again
with all the treasures formerly heaped up, and gives
back all the titles to the eternal inheritance, plunging
our sins in the bottom of the abysses, and never per
mitting them to reappear even for the purpose of over
whelming us on the day of the supreme justice.
It is, lastly, the august power which belongs only to
Him who is dependent solely on Himself, which ena
bles Him entirely to remit the debt and to purify the
stain, fully to pardon, in a word, because all right is
in His hand and because no one can say to Him : " Why
hast Thou done this ?"
Oh adorable perfection, how good, helpful and amia
ble thou art! Oh perfection, which is our sole title to
salvation in the sight of God, our only hope, our holi
ness, and our treasure! We are worth nothing except
through mercy; it is only through it that we live, it is
for us the definite form of our God. And if the God
of angels be the God of holiness, our God is the God
of mercies.
Adore the divine mercy on the throne whence it
gives its graces and diffuses its pardons. What is the
Eucharist, if it be not pardon continued upon earth,
pardon shed abroad, indefatigable waiting, the kiss of
reconciliation, the seal of pardon, the festival where
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 1 1 1
the prodigals are restored once more to the joy, the
peace, and the honor of children of the merciful Father ?
Is not the sacramental veil the veil of patience, of gen
tleness, of compassion, of condescension ?
Adore, adore the divine mercy in its most merciful
manifestations!
II. THANKSGIVING.
Thanksgiving is here so closely allied to adoration
that it seems to be confounded with it in one and the
same homage. How, indeed, can we see, study, adore
mercy, otherwise than with a feeling of inmost happi
ness, of joy, and of gratitude ? As this attribute of God
manifests itself in action only by the good that it ex
ercises in our favor, all its actions are controlled by the
benefits which we receive.
Now, if you examine very closely the manifestations
of the divine mercy in the Eucharist, what do you see ?
That its institution had, as its primary cause, a lively
sentiment of compassion, which penetrated into the
heart of Jesus and made Him say, "If I send them
away fasting, they will fall by the way."
What more do you see ? That Christ, desirous to
ensure the pardon obtained from His Father by His
death on the cross for a guilty world, united the Eu
charist so closely with His bloody sacrifice, that it is
the continual renewal of it until the last day of the
world, and the application made to each sinner accord
ing to his personal needs at the time and in the cir
cumstances when he is precisely in need of it.
What more ? That the Eucharist finishes the work
of mercy begun at the holy tribunal, by healing the
wounds caused by sin, by destroying its remains, by
drying up its corrupt fountains, by attacking it in its
most hidden germs,
1 1 2 The Divine Titles of the Eucharist.
Again, what more ? Lastly, the Eucharist smoothes
the return and embellishes the pardon, by calling the
guilty sinner, as soon as he has issued from the tribunal
of penance, as soon as he has raised the stone from
his tomb, to a festival where, seated amongst the just,
he eats the Bread of angels, and sees (descending into
the depths of his pardoned soul, still trembling after
the painful operations of the laborious baptism of pen
ance, still hesitating to believe in the reality of his
sudden transformation) the Judge Himself, the awful,
offended Judge, his own God, who says to him, after
having laid upon his lips the kiss of peace, who ex
claims even as heart speaks to heart, " My son was
lost, My son has been found again. It is I, have con
fidence! I am the Lamb of God, the Lamb who takes
away the sins of the world! "
Remember, then, all the tears which you have shed
upon the pavement of the sanctuary, before the tab
ernacle, on the days when you were being solicited by
the divine mercy! Remember your communions on
the days of the conversions of your life, too numerous
perhaps, because, alas! they were not durable; the
day after your general confession before your first
communion ; when after the years of your youth spent
far away from God, He brought you back to Himself;
when, lastly, He made you once more ascend the slopes
of mortal sin down which little by little tepidity, negli
gence, and infidelity to grace had dragged you; re
member your communions, and tell me if you can
invoke the remembrance of them without praising
with all your heart the Sacrament of ineffable mercy.
III. REPARATION.
Understand, therefore, what is the sin, and what
will be the chastisement of those who despise the di-
The Divine Titles of the Eucharist. 113
vine mercy, so present and so helpful, so determined
to offer itself and so active in the Eucharist! Ah, how
fearful will be the vengeance of the mercy which is
disowned, rendered useless, and reascends to heaven
without having been able to touch our ungrateful
hearts and accomplish its work of pardon!
If mercy arrests justice, suspends its arm, and in a
manner does violence to it in this world, when it shall
have quitted the earth what will not be the terrible repris
als of justice which have for so long a time been kept
under and the accumulated anger of which will burst
forth suddenly! Remember, remember, that the more
mercy is great, generous, and patient, the more terrible
will be the revenge which justice will take for it.
Hasten to become the subjects of clement and pater
nal mercy, that you may not hereafter fall beneath the
avenging sceptre of unchained justice!
IV. PRAYER.
Make a resolution and ask for grace never to mis
trust the divine Mercy in your falls, and to come at
once, however lamentable, frequent, and renewed they
be, and cast yourself at the foot of the merciful Sacra
ment to ask of it, with its pardon, strength to go
without delay and accuse yourself to its ministers.
The one sin which is absolutely irremediable is to de
spair of the mercy of God.
But, in return, remember to be merciful towards
your brethren, in thought, word, and deed.
Practice.
To lead all those over whom we have any influence,
by words and by counsels, to have great confidence in
the mercy of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Ifouman Tittles of tbe JEucbarist.
I. Jesus in the Sacrament is truly Man.
I. ADORATION.
JESUS, my Saviour and my God, I adore Thee under
the name, in the quality, in the state of veritable man,
that Thou dost always bear, even in the Sacrament,
and despite the appearances of bread. I adore Thee
under that name of goodness, because there is none
other which speaks more plainly of Thy love than that
which has made Thee like unto one of us, which
caused Thee to descend into our valley of tears, made
Thee live in our condition, subject to the same laws, to
the same difficulties, to the same sufferings as our
selves.
The name and the state of man are the root of all
Thy other names of goodness. If Thou lovest me as
a father, if Thou art gentle and patient towards me as
a mother, if Thou hast for me the devotion of a friend,
the familiarity of a brother; if Thou art my good
shepherd, my charitable Samaritan, the physician of
my ills and the consoler of my sorrows, if Thou art
my victim and my saviour, is it not most of all be
cause Thou art really man? And if I am able to know
Thee, to feel confidence in, and friendship for, and
familiarity with Thee; if I know that I shall be under
stood, that Thou wilt compassionate my sufferings
and my temptations, my miseries and my falls, is it
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. i T 5
not again because Thou didst make Thyself man, that
Thou mightest learn by Thine own experience what it
is to be tried and tempted, to submit and to endure, to
suffer and to die ?
Ah! my Saviour, ah! my brother Jesus, man as I
am, of the same nature as I, habitu inventus lit homo ;
Jesus, who hast like me a soul taken out of nothing,
and capable of love, of joy, and of sorrow, a mortal
body born of a woman and formed of her substance;
Jesus, whose heart was dilated beneath the influences
of joy, or shuddered under the blows of fear and of
anguish; Jesus, who wast hungry and thirsty, who
didst suffer from cold and from heat, from lassitude
and weariness, whilst climbing the same rough heights
as I; Jesus, who didst come with the same love, the
same desires, the same repugnances and the same in
firmities as I; loving and desiring to be loved, finding
Thy pleasure in the fidelity of Thy friends, and inex
pressible sorrows in their ingratitude; Thou who didst
incur the same obligations, and who wast subjected to
the same laws, a creature adoring Thy Creator, a son
obeying Thy mother, the citizen of a terrestrial city,
the subject of a human government, oh Jesus, oh true
man, Jesus, "one of us," I adore Thee, I praise Thee, I
admire Thee, I bless Thee in the reality of Thy human
nature!
1 also adore Thee as man in the Sacrament, acknowl
edging that Thou hast divested Thyself of the appear
ances of my humanity to be clothed with those of
bread which 1 can eat, but knowing well and repeat
ing with the faith of the Church that "This is Thy
body and this Thy blood," that in the Eucharist are to
be found, together with the divinity, the soul, the
body, the blood, consequently the whole of Christ;
Christus totus. I know then and I confess that spite
1 1 6 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
of the differences of pure form which shelter Thee
from the attacks of suffering and of death, conquered
by Thee, once for all, I acknowledge that there still,
in Thy reality and Thy substance, Thou art truly man,
man like us, one of us, and I adore Thee therein. Oh
true Son of the Virgin Mother: A-ve verum corpus
natum de Maria Virgine !
II. THANKSGIVING.
Oh, how sweet this thought is and how I thank
Thee, too loving Saviour, for having willed to make
me enjoy, whilst remaining man in Thy Eucharist, all
the advantages of Thy human state!
For, after all, it is in Thy humanity that God has
drawn near to us, that we have seen Him, that we
have heard Him, that we have touched Him with our
hands, and that we have understood His love and His
mercy. It is through the gentleness of Thy aspect
that we have seen His justice appeased and His mercy
turned towards us; it is through the clemency of Thy
lips that we have heard that He has pardoned us; it is
in Thy open arms that we have beheld the sincerity of
His pardon; it is in the impulses, the tendernesses, and
the compassionate thrills of Thy Heart that His love
has fully revealed itself. It is when we have seen
Thee clothed with human nature, inhabiting this world,
that we have understood that humanity was no longer
the object of His anger, and that the earth was no
longer accursed.
By perpetuating Thy human life here below, the
Sacrament continues to give us these assurances, to
make us these merciful revelations.
If Thou couldst, but for a single moment, cease to be
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 1 1 7
man, the link between God and us would be broken,
there would be no more any reconciliation, no more
any conversion between Him and us. Holiness horri
fied, justice irritated in heaven; here below evil, sin.
despair, and death ! But as long as Thou art there, man
like ourselves, our eldest brother, our security and our
Mediator, God loves us, God is ours, God is for us; our
infirmities do not any longer displease Him because of
Thine. He even pardons our sins and bears with them
because of the ransom perpetually offered for them by
the blood of Thy five wounds; in a word, He loves
our humanity, yes, He loves it with a love that is in
finite and inexhaustible in its complaisance, in the
purity, the holiness and the perfection of Thine, oh
superexcellent Man!
If Thou art still man in the Sacrament, it is there
fore for our salvation, the assurance of the pardon, of
the presence, and of the possession of God.
Again, it is for me the certitude of being under
stood, the right to approach, to enter into friendship,
to make use of confidence and familiarity towards
Thee, oh Jesus!
For wherefore hast Thou willed to become and to
remain as one of us, unless it be that we should treat
Thee as one of ourselves, and that all fear being
banished, every barrier removed, and all distance be
tween us being passed over, we should go straight to
Thy heart and therein take our rest; and is it not pre
cisely this which Thou desirest above all to remind us
of, is it not this right which Thou dost render us, and
this invitation which Thou dost address to us, when,
in the impatience of Thy love, Thou dost show what
there is in the depths of Thy Eucharist, Thy Heart,
Thy human heart, devoured with love and melting
with compassion!
n8 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
III. REPARATION.
"Behold the heart which has so loved men, and
which in return receives only ingratitude through their
rebuffs and their coldness."
Ah, how truly this sorrowful complaint, this cry of
anguish, is that of man, and how thoroughly we feel
by it that Jesus, our adorable Master, wills to be rec
ognized and loved as man in His Sacrament? Yes,
He has loved at the cost of the solicitude, of the de-
votedness, of the anguish, of the sorrows, of the
sufferings and of the blood of His human heart; He
has loved to the point of exhausting the heart which
seemed as though it would be impossible to exhaust!
But He has loved in order to be loved, He has given
Himself that we may give ourselves to Him, He wills
a return; He cannot renounce it. The human heart
has a greater horror than even nature itself of a void,
and if it does not obtain love for love, it suffers, it is
spent, and it languishes sorrowfully. Such is the state
of His heart which the Saviour reveals to us, so truly
human in the Eucharist.
Let us love Him then as man, whilst remembering
the desires, the sensitiveness, the delicacy, the needs
and the anguish of His human heart! Not to do so,
in addition to its imposing on Him the burden of an
insupportable ingratitude, is the inflicting on Him of a
cruel injury, it is the undervaluing of Him, and at the
end of a very short time it is necessarily the forget
ting Him; for if we do not believe Him to be man in
His Sacrament, we shall not treat Him as a living per
son and one sensible to our homage, but a thing with
out soul, without life, as incapable of being satisfied
by our love as of being offended by our indifference.
It is a crime! It is the practical negation of the great
work and the great love of God.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 119
Ah! do not let us render ourselves guilty of it, and
let us make reparation as quickly as possible by re
doubling our attentions towards the Saviour, so truly
the Man of the Sacrament.
IV. PRAYER.
Oh Jesus, give me grace to love Thee and to treat
Thee in Thy Sacrament, spite of its veils, as the being
whom I love most on earth; with the same ardor and
the same attentions, with the same devotedness and
the same delicacy, with the same confidence and the
same respect; it will be satisfying Thee completely,
oh too kind Saviour; it will also be my holiness and
my happiness!
Practice.
To read above all the tabernacles these sacred
words: " Ego sum; it is I! "
II. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Mediator.
I. ADORATION.
CONFESS and adore, beneath the veil of the Host, so
luminous to faith, Our Lord Jesus Christ, God and man
both together, in His title, His state, and His function
of Mediator between God and man.
This adorable name, this both divine and human
state and this august function of Mediator, is all that is
most fundamental in Jesus Christ, most essential in re
ligion, most glorious to God and most necessary for
man. God finds therein the satisfaction of His right,
the reparation due to His justice, the religion demanded
by His infinite majesty; man finds therein pardon from
120 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
God, reconciliation with his Father, the possibility of
being able henceforth to serve Him with the certitude
of pleasing Him.
It is, in fact, because God, after man had sinned,
withdrew from Him and broke the links of benevo- -
lence, that is to say of grace, which had until then ex
isted between Him and man. Without grace, which
raises Him above the limits of His nature, it is impos
sible for a created being to attain to God, either to
honor Him, or please Him, or possess Him. An irri
tated God, a guilty creature separated forever from
God— behold the state created by sin. There is be
tween them, not only the abyss of the infinite, but the
more profound abyss still of stain in the presence of
holiness, of ingratitude in the presence of love, and of
inability to make reparation in presence of justice '
offended.
The Son of God has filled up this abyss and has cast
Himself as an indestructible bridge between the two
opposite shores, by incarnating Himself, that is to say,
by becoming man, without ceasing to be God: Fecit
utraque unum. And in Him, by the fact of the Incar
nation, we behold human nature and the divine nature
reconciled and reunited, God and man, the infinite and
the finite, in the unity of one sole person who is Christ.
The humanity which is in Christ being of the same na
ture as that of man, which it represents, receives for it
self, and in the name of all the others pardon from God,
His grace, His love, His divine life, all His perfections,
all His infinite happiness. In the name of all the
others also, this holy humanity asks for pardon, prays,
makes reparation and offers to God satisfaction. And
this religion is perfect, of infinite value, sure to attain
to God, to praise Him, to love Him, to honor Him, in
the degree which His infinite majesty merits, because
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 121
the Person of the Word gives to all the acts of the
humanity of Christ an infinite price and value.
Adore, then, the divine Mediator, and remark with
gratitude and admiration that it is not only by certain
acts, certain functions, or at certain hours, not only for
a time, that Christ is Mediator between God and man;
it is through a firm, permanent, and imperishable
state; it is always and forever; it is because He is at
once God and man. To be a mediator is to be what
Christ is, the Word Incarnate; it is all one and the
same. If He were — a thing which is impossible — not
to exercise any of the functions proper to a Mediator,
such as to submit the terms of the offended and
to present the reparations of the offender, or to
plead as an advocate, or to intercede as a priest, still
by the sole fact of His state as Man-God, Christ would
always be the mediator because always, since the In
carnation, in the unity of His person will meet to
gether and will be reconciled and united the divinity
and humanity.
This Christ, at once God and man, is present and
living in the Sacrament; adore Him, offer yourselves
to Him, ask Him to enable you to participate in the
benefits of His mediation.
II. THANKSGIVING.
The benefits of the mediation of Jesus Christ are
therefore first of all to make an impossibility cease;
that is to say, that of finding again, by means of our
selves, God, our supernatural end, our eternal happi
ness; of supplying constantly our insufficiency, our
poverty, the imperfections of our religion towards God.
For even after having reentered into grace and having
at our disposal all the means of salvation, we always
remain inferior to our obligation towards God. The
122 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
reason is that these obligations are first of all infinite,
and then that we never correspond fully or persever-
ingly to the graces which God gives us wherewith to
make up for our natural indigence. The divine Medi
ator is our supplement. It was not for Himself alone
that He prayed, suffered, and merited, but in our name
and for us. All the superabundance of His merits He
pours forth upon us.
And it is this charitable and merciful function which
He perpetually continues, which He indefatigably exer
cises in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Every morning He renews His solemn sacrifice of
adoration, of reparation, and of prayer, by taking under
the species of bread and wine the state of death and of
abasement which immolates Him upon the altar. This
is the great act of His mediation.
Then, all day and all night long, without any possi
ble interruption, He continues it, not only by pleading
and appealing to the mercy of His Father, but still
more, by keeping, that He may present it without in
terruption before the eyes of God, His state of victim
immolated for His glory and for our salvation.
God therefore always beholds, amongst us here be
low, in the midst of our revolts, of our cowardice and
of our blasphemies, His most dear Son Jesus, at once
God and man. He sees Him offer Himself, give Him
self, immolate Himself in the name of all of us, with
infinite love; therein is all our strength, all our support,
all our riches, all our hope: let us ceaselessly bless our
generous Mediator for it!
111. REPARATION.
In spite of the goodness and the power which Jesus
displays in the service of His mediation, we too often
repel and render useless its immense sacrifices.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 123
Man wishes to do without God, and to depend
only on himself. It is the consequence of a pride as
blind and malevolent as it is execrable; but whoever
sins mortally renders himself guilty of it. In all sin
there is first pride, which separates itself from God,
refuses to recognize the authority of the Creator and
its own dependence. What shall we say of those
who maintain themselves forever in a state of practi
cal indifference, of impiety, of naturalism, and have
no longer with God any of the religious relations
which He has imposed upon man through the voice
and the example of Jesus Christ? It is blasphemy
carried into act, the living negation of His mediation.
How many Christians also there are who would hold
in horror the rejection of the adorable Mediator, but
who nevertheless dispense too much with His concur
rence, His succor, His support, and His salutary influ
ences! Those who do not pray enough, who do not
nourish themselves sufficiently with His flesh, are too
much inspired with natural motives in their works, are
not faithful or given up wholly to the divine will ; those-
who do not dwell in Jesus as in the centre of their life,
and in whom He does not dwell as the soul of their
soul, are debtors towards the beneficent mediation of
Jesus; at the last judgment He will demand a severe
account of them.
Examine yourselves and hasten to unite yourselves
more closely in practice with the indispensable Media
tor of salvation.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask of God grace and make the determination to
resolve upon nothing, to ask nothing, to do nothing
except "through Jesus Christ Our Lord," consulting
Him in regard to everything, confiding to Him the
1 24 The Hitman Titles of the Eucharist.
long reflections which ought to precede every enter
prise, exposing to Him doubts, hesitations, fears,
chances, hopes; praying to Him, repeating all these
things, and imploring His active and assiduous help
for their execution. Then, above all, keep yourselves
closely united to Him, always dependent on Him, not
growing discouraged, not becoming impatient because
of His delays, not substituting your action for His, and
often purifying your intentions.
It is at this price that you will never labor alone,
never in vain, that all your works will be meritorious
and holy, and that you will produce fruits for eternity,
because they will be inspired, performed, and finished
with Jesus, in Jesus, and by Jesus, the sole Mediator
between God and man.
Practice.
To consecrate every work undertaken to the influ
ence, to the action, to the goodness of the divine
Mediator.
III. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Father.
I. ADORATION.
JESUS, who didst say at the Last Supper to Thy
apostles, saddened by the announcement of Thy death:
"Little children, fear not, I will not leave you or
phans," I adore Thee in the Sacrament, with all the
filial confidence of which my heart is capable, under
Thy sweet name of Father.
Father! Yea Thou art a father and no one is so much
a father as Thou art. If paternity consists in giving
life, in assuring the development of it and in defend
ing it, is it not what Thou dost with indefatigable
perseverance in the Sacrament ?
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 125
It is in the effusion of Thy blood that we have ob
tained life, and Thou never ceasest to shed it that
Thou mayest augment the family of the children of
God. It is Thy higher life, Thy own divine life which
Thou givest them, a holy life, an immortal life, a
blessed life, oh generous and magnificent Father!
Then it is necessary that this life received from
Thee should be nourished, developed, increased by the
principles and elements of a higher nature. To
provide for the existence of his children, to provide
a patrimony for them, or at least daily bread, is not
this the great solicitude of the father of a family ? It
is for that that he labors, that he is anxious, that he
wearies himself and wears out his life down to the last
day of his existence; and he is happy when, on his
deathbed, falling beneath the weight of his laborious
years, he leaves his children the bread which will en
able them to become greater. And it is for this neces
sity that Thou hast made provision, good and fore
seeing Father, by instituting Thy Sacrament.
Thou hast accumulated the divine wheat in the
granary of the Church, and the wine in its cellars;
Thou hast set tables which will always remain dressed,
and Thou hast instituted ministers whose principal
employment is to bring Thy innumerable children to
them and to serve them there. The least as well as
the greatest receive there in abundance the bread
gained by Thee, the bread of Thy labors and of Thy
sweats, the bread of Thy flesh and of Thy blood, the
bread of Thy substance and of Thy life. Oh tender
and devoted Father, Thy children will never know the
anguish or the faintness of hunger!
And if the third duty of paternity is to protect the
home against all danger and to defend the children
against all enemies, to be valiant, vigilant, and inde-
126 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
fatigable; oh Jesus, oh Father, what dost Thou do in
Thy numerous tabernacles, set up in every part of the
globe like towers of observation and defence, what
dost Thou do in Thy interminable watches of the day
and of the night, if it be not to watch over Thy chil
dren, to protect and to defend them ? Dost Thou not
shield them by Thy holiness against the vengeance of
the divine anger, by Thy victorious power against the
endeavors of Satan ? Dost not Thou envelop them in
Thy strength, in Thy vigilance, in Thy goodness; and
as long as Thou art there and they are pressing close
to Thee, who can injure them ?
Father most holy, Father most good, Father most
devoted, Jesus, Thou art my Father. I adore Thee and
I give myself to Thee; I desire to love Thee, to respect
Thee, to listen to Thee and to imitate Thee, even as
such a Father as Thou art deserves to be by a sub
missive, obedient and loving son!
II. THANKSGIVING.
Father! My Father! How sweet is the name!
What tenderness, what suavity envelops it like a per
fume! What remembrances of peace, of security, of
devotedness proved and enjoyed, it awakens!
Jesus, who might have remained my Creator, the
God of majesty, my judge without appeal, how good
Thou art to have willed to be also my father, still
more to have invested all Thy titles of grandeur and
of majesty with the charm of so sweet a name! And
how good Thou art to have made me understand by
Thy gospel that it is this name which ought to take the
place of all other names for me, that it is as a father
Thou desirest to be treated, by sons that Thou dost will
to be served, and not by slaves or by mercenaries.
But it is at the Last Supper, in the tendernesses and
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 127
the familiarities of that ideal family repast, it is con
sequently in Thy Eucharist that Thou wiliest to make
me enjoy all the sweets of Thy paternal love! Thy
churches are our home, Thy tabernacles our hearth;
Thy divine table is our table, we have always access
to it, we are never strangers there; with Thee we are
really at home, oh Father of all goodness!
What peace is enjoyed near Thee! What kindness
attracts and charms us! What condescension lowers
itself and makes itself all in all to us! Thou dost un
derstand our stammerings! Thou art not offended by
our incoherences! Thou bearest with our forgetful-
nesses. Jesus, what a Father Thou art in the Sacrament
of Thy inexhaustible kindness! And how thoroughly
dost Thou realize that consoling promise, "My little
children, filioli met, I will not leave you orphans!"
Be Thou blessed, thanked and loved forever, most kind
Father, for having spared us so cruel a trial! How sad
this life would have been if we had not had Thee for
our support, for our protector! Who amongst us
would have been able to bear its trials, brave its
dangers, avoid its rocks ? What a place of exile this
world would have been without Thy presence, which
speaks to us of our home, without Thy assistance,
which brings us back to it.
Oh! Father, in order to testify to Thee my gratitude,
I will always love Thee with a filial, trustful heart, open
and abandoned without reserve to Thy divine good
ness!
III. REPARATION.
Can it be, alas! that having a Father such as Thou
art, oh Jesus, we should so often be a cause of suffer
ing and of anguish to Thy too loving heart, to Thy
name so worthy of honor, a cause of ignoring the
128 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
august rights of Thy paternity, of denying them, an
outrage and an offence!
Too kind Father, how many of Thy sons are prodigal
children, arrogantly claiming the goods with which
Thou hast enriched them, and then abandoning Thee
with contempt in order to go and madly dissipate their
possessions in shameful pleasures! And Thou seest
them abase and degrade and render themselves miser
able far away from Thee! Instead of the delicious
bread with which Thou didst maintain them in vigor
ous health, to what wretched aliments have they not
abandoned themselves!
Far from condemning these ungrateful children, Thou
dost consume Thyself with anxious longings, with
burning prayers, to hasten their return! With what
solicitude, with what eager love Thy eyes seek them
from afar! At last Thou hast merited their conversion,
they have felt the sting of remorse beneath the pangs
of misery. They remember "their Father's bread,"
the joys of their first communion, and they come
back ashamed, timid, hesitating! But Thou art there
to receive them, and as soon as Thy minister has,
through absolution, reopened the doors of the paternal
home, Thou dost receive them, Thou dost prepare a
joyful feast for them, Thou dost press them to Thy
heart and givest them the kiss of reconciliation. Oh
never to be forgotten peace, indescribable emotions of
the communion of the return, in which the goodness
of our Father changes our tears of repentance to tears
of gladness, how well Thou showest us that the God
of the Sacrament is indeed our Father, and though we
are prodigals, we are always His children!
IV. PRAYER.
Recite slowly, whilst meditating upon and enjoying
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 129
each word, the Pater Noster, with your eyes fixed upon
Jesus in the Sacrament.
Practice.
To form the habit of judging of all the procedures
of God in regard to us as coming from a Father in
finitely kind, who can will nothing but our good.
IV. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Mother.
I. ADORATION.
JESUS, present in the Sacrament of all love, Thou art
my Father and Thou lovest me with the devoted,
strong, watchful love of a Father! I have adored
Thee and lovingly called Thee Father, Abba, Pater!
But I feel that I dare do more than even this. My
heart longs to love Thee even more tender than a
Father. The unchangeable sweetness of Thy Sacra
mental state, the touching familiarities springing from
the gift which Thou makest of Thyself in the Com
munion, encourage me to love Thee as we love a
mother, to see, to enjoy, to possess in Thy heart all
the tenderness, all the little attentions of maternal love.
Besides, hast Thou not appropriated to Thyself this
most amiable of all names? "Shall I not bring forth
in My turn, I who give to mothers their fecundity?
No, no, rejoice then all of you, children of men; as one
whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you:
Numquid ego qui altos par ere facio ipse non pariam,
dicit Dominus ? Quomodo si cut mater blandiatur, ita
et ego consolabor vos. " (Isaias Ixvi. 9-13.)
Is it not Thou who dost address to our ingratitude
130 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
this sublime challenge: " Even if it were possible for
a mother to forget the fruit of her womb, I will never
forget thee " ?
Is it not Thou who didst compare Thyself to the
hen, that mother so vigilant, so devoted, so intrepid in
regard to her chickens, and who dost spread Thy wings
that we may hasten and find a shelter beneath them
against the tempest and the vulture?
Is it not Thou also who didst call Thy apostles, at
the Last Supper, not only Thy brethren or Thy chil
dren, but "Thy little children, filioli" that name so
sweet that it could have been invented only by a
mother ? And what wert Thou then, after having given
Thyself in communion to the Twelve with John rest
ing on Thy breast, if Thou wert not the mother who
nourishes her children with her substance, and who
makes them afterwards repose, satisfied and content,
upon her bosom ?
Oh, yes! Thou art a mother, most sweet and most
kind Saviour, through the tenderness of Thy love for
us. Tenderness in devotedness, is in fact the char
acteristic of maternal love; to the father belongs guid
ance, protection, opportune correction; to the mother
tenderness, gentleness, devotedness, the delicate cares
associated with each moment; the formation and
the handling of the little creature, so great both in its
soul and body.
It is she who gives to it life in her blood, she who
nourishes it with her milk, she who assures to it, from
its birth, her devoted care; she sacrifices herself, she
immolates herself, she gives herself wholly up to her
child, it is the fruit of her sufferings, the fruit which
is developed amidst long sufferings, which is gathered
amidst sharp pains, which ripens and is preserved
amidst moral sufferings which are greater still.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 131
Jesus! didst Thou not bear us in Thy heart with
poignant anguish, during the thirty-three years of the
desires, of the prayers of Thy mortal life ? Was it not
necessary that Thy heart should be opened and
wounded on the cross in order to give us birth amidst
horrible torments ? And is it not of Thy substance, of
Thy divinity, and of Thy humanity, annihilated and
reduced into spiritual milk under the white appearances
of the Sacrament, that Thou dost nourish, repair, and
increase the life which we have received from Thee ?
Yes, Thou art a mother, and I adore Thee in the in
expressible charm of that name of tenderness and sac
rifice!
II. THANKSGIVING.
Claiming for Thy love towards us all the character
istics of maternal love, Thou hast said, oh my God,
" Hearken unto Me, all the remnant of the house of Israel
who are carried in My bowels, who are born up by My
womb. Even to your old age I am the same, and to
your grey hairs I will carry you: I have made you and
will bear; I will carry and will save. Audite omne
residuum domus Israel ; qui portamini a meo utero,
qui gestamini a men -vulva. Utque ad senectam ego
ipse, et usque ad canos ego portabo ; ego fed, et ego
f erani ; ego portabo et salvabo." (Isaias xlvi. 3.)
To be like us, to shelter us, to make us repose on
Thy bosom, and there to give us the caresses, the
smiles, the consolations which mothers lavish on their
new-born children, behold this is what Thou dost in
the Sacrament, oh sweetest Saviour! For in it Thou
dost divest Thyself of all prestige, of all splendor, of all
the accessories of authority, of grandeur, and of maj
esty. Thou dost draw us towards Thee by Thy si
lence, by Thy gentleness, by Thy inexhaustible pa
tience; Thou dost make Thyself little because we are
132 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
little. We can say anything and everything to Thee;
Thou never weariest of our hesitations, of our stammer
ings, of our distractions, of our forgetfulnesses, of our
inability to treat Thee in accordance with Thy dignity.
Like to the mother who tolerates all the importunities
of her child because she loves it, Thou overlookest
everything, Thou bearest everything from us, we who
are more capricious children, more egotistical, more
insupportable than ever was child towards its mother.
Thou lovest us and Thou wiliest that we should find
nothing but kindness in Thee!
But more than this, Thou dost open to us Thy arms,
Thou dost call us and dost urge us to come and throw
ourselves on Thy breast; what is the Communion un
less it be the most tender of embraces, the closest
clasp between God and His creature, between the
mother and the child. " Gaudete gaudio, universi, ut
sugatis el repleamini ab ubere consolationis ejus : ut
mulgeatis et deliciis affluatis ab omnimo da gloria ejus."
(Isaias Ixvi. 10, n.) And if we meet with consola
tion here below, if we enjoy interior and profound
joys, if we sometimes experience the delights and
ecstasies reserved by our God for His children, is it
not during the blessed hours of our communions,
when possessed by Thee we also possess Thee, when
Thou art in us and we in Thee, and when Thou dost
inebriate us with the vivifying and sweet effusions of
Thy heart! Meliora sunt ubera tua vino ! It is true
that Thy blood, although it has the appearances and
the strength of wine, has also all the sweetness of milk,
Bibi vtnum meum cum lacte meo. (Cant. v. i.)
III. REPARATION.
To offend Thee, to forget Thee, to be ungrateful to
wards Thee, is therefore to wound Thy maternal ten-
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 133
derness, oh Jesus; it is to give to our offences the par
ticularly odious character with which is invested an
insult inflicted on a mother, whose sorrows, and
whose goodness and august weakness render her
threefold sacred.
Therefore woe to the unnatural son who makes his
mother weep! Her tears will accuse him at the tribunal
of God, her sorrows will cry out for vengeance, her
long patience and her inexhaustible goodness will
brand him on his forehead with the stigma of igno
miny, ingratitude, hardness, want of heart. " Forget
not the groanings of thy mother, says Ecclesiasticus;
remember that thou hadst not been born but through
her, and make a return to her as she has done to thee:
In toto corde tuo gemitus mains tuce ne obliviscaris ;
memento quoniam nisi per illas natus non fuisses ; et
retribue illis quomodo et illi tibi." (Ecclus. vii. 29.)
Too kind Jesus! what will my sins be if I examine
them by the light of Thy tenderness for me, of the
sorrows Thou hast endured to give me the life of the
soul, of the merciful patience with which Thou hast
borne with me for so long time past!
It is, nevertheless, from this point of view I desire
to look at them, that they may at last break my heart,
and that my tears of repentance shed over Thy suffer
ings may repay Thee for the tears which Thou hast
shed so abundantly over my sins.
IV. PRAYER.
To love Thee with a filial, grateful, and submissive
love; to recall to myself Thy tender goodness that I
may also exercise tenderness towards Thee; to take
refuge in my sufferings in Thy Heart full of tender
ness in the Sacrament, to come and assiduously draw
134 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
forth supernatural life; to honor Thee by the simplic
ity, the purity, the confidence, the docility and the
abandonment of childhood— such are the resolutions
which I make at Thy feet, and the graces which I ask
of Thee, oh Jesus, Father and Mother of my soul, its
life, its repose, and its consolation!
Practice.
The spirit of Christian childhood in our relations
towards God.
V. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Brother.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and
salute Him with a lively faith as your elder Brother;
with gratitude, because this your brother, full of love,
of tenderness, and of devotedness is there only for the
purpose of assuring you in eternity the fruits of the
august brotherhood, which He has contracted with you
here below, and in order to make you participate in it.
But do you really believe that Jesus is your brother ?
Do you believe that the only Son of God has abased
Himself to such a degree as to become the brother of
His creature, and that man can really ascend so high as
to be the brother of his Creator ? It is nevertheless
true!
''In the bosom of the uncreated Father," says Saint
Augustine, " He was forever the only Son, begotten
from all eternity; but He descended from heaven and
passed through the womb of a mother that He might
make brothers for Himself, in the participation of the
one same created nature."
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 135
And this human nature having been united with His
divine nature in the unity of one same person, the
Son of God became the Son of man; and the Son
of God, inasmuch as He was Son of man, has had
brethren; brethren of the same nature, of the same
blood. He became the only Son, Unigenitus ; He
became the eldest Son, Primogenitus ; and all men,
even those who have nothing in common with Him
except that they are men, have become His younger
brethren.
But to these brethren whose human nature He took
upon Himself He communicated His divine nature in
a vital, permanent effusion, and one so efficacious that
it has made of all those who receive it brothers of
the Son of God, not only by community of nature, but
by participation in the same divine life and the right to
the same heavenly inheritance : Conformes fieri
imagini filii sui, ut sit ipse primogenitus in multis
fratribus.
Therefore, our fraternity with Jesus Christ has these
two foundations; flesh and grace, our human nature
which He takes from us, His divine nature which He
gives to us; the similitude of our mortal life which He
comes to partake with us, the similitude of His divine
life, to the share in which He raises us, here below in
grace, hereafter in glory.
Now these two reasons of the fraternity of Christ
with us, persevere and are affirmed by the Eucharist;
Jesus, wholly risen as He is, therein keeps our flesh,
our blood, our human soul, our whole nature, and He
therein gives us, keeps up, and develops ceaselessly in
us His divine life.
Ah! let us say to Him with a profound sentiment of
so real and so august a fraternity, our supreme honor
and one of our sweetest consolations: Jesus, Word of
136 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
God, only Son of the Most High, Jesus my God, spite
of Thy glory and my misery, Thy holiness and my
sins, Jesus, Thou art my brother, flesh of my flesh; we
have the same Father in heaven, the same Mother on
earth : ' ' Prater noster et caro nostra ! "
II. THANKSGIVING.
Consider attentively the divine goodness, the in
credible condescension, the love so true and so sincere,
which the most sweet fraternity which Jesus has con
tracted with us causes to shine forth.
"Because children of Adam, we were flesh and
blood," says Saint Paul, " the Son of God clothed Him
self with flesh, as He who sanctifies and those who are
sanctified ought to participate in one sole and same holi
ness. He made Himself like to us, not feeling ashamed
at making and calling us His brothers. But still more
than this, in order to merit the name He willed to re
semble us in all things, that He might derive from the
trials and temptations of His own life, knowledge,
compassion and power to succor us in ours."
It was seen during His life how really He was one of
us ; He shared our poor dwellings, our meagre food, our
hard labors; He was acquainted with hunger and
thirst, heat and cold; but above all in how large a
measure did He not partake of our trials and our suffer
ings: hatred, calumny, persecution, the sorrows of the
soul, sadness, disgust, lassitude, terrors; the tortures
of the heart: abandonment, treachery, ingratitude, and
the wound which is never cured of cruel separations.
I say nothing of the sufferings and the torments en
dured in His body; never was the human frame in
flicted with so many wounds, bruised by so many
blows!
The Hitman Titles of the Eucharist. 137
And even now, even in His glory, He wills to re
main our brother by participation in our conditions of
existence ; He wills that we should know it thoroughly ;
and therefore immediately on the very morning of His
resurrection He says: "Go and announce to My
brethren that I shall always be their brother," and so He
comes by means of the Eucharist to inhabit our miser
able earth; He returns to it in conditions of weakness,
of poverty, of dependence, which will everywhere show
Him to us as being like to ourselves, contradicted,
calumniated, pursued, betrayed, abandoned, sometimes
ignominiously treated by profaners to whom He has
shown nothing but kindness.
Oh yes! He is our brother, similar to ourselves;
remaining there to lead us, for He is our firstborn; to
protect us, to assist us, to speak to us of our Father
and of our paternal home, where we are so longed for.
And until then, He wills that His house, His Church,
should shelter us with Him; that His table should be
ours, and that we should sit down there with Him;
that the same bread should nourish us, us and Him,
for our communions are the Bread of the Last Supper,
and Jesus, after having broken it, was the first to eat
of it.
Could there be any fraternity more true, more de
voted, more amiable ? Oh, let us love Him as a
brother, in His tabernacles, let us desire Him, let us
sigh after Him as after the most beloved of brothers in the
Communion : Quis mihidette fratrem meum, sugentem,
uber a matris mece, ut inveniam te forts et deosculer te,
et jam me nemo despiciat!
III. REPARATION.
It is not only under the type of Joseph that Jesus is
sold by His brethren, it is, alas! too sorrowful a reality.
138 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
Who was it that sold Him for thirty pieces of silver ?
One of those whom He called so lovingly His brothers,
with whom He had lived under the same roof, eating
the same bread, in the most cordial intimacy! Who is
it that sells Him every day in the Sacrament: some to
their vile passions, others to satanic agents for horrible
mysteries, others to infamous profaners ? False breth
ren who come to His table give Him the kiss of peace,
break bread with Him, and deliver up the blood of
their brother, more just than Abel, more innocent than
Joseph!
Think with horror of these treacheries and have
compassion on your adorable betrayed Brother, by
showing Him all the affection, all the confidence of
tender and devoted brethren.
IV. PRAYER.
Earnestly ask for the virtue and the grace of frater
nal charity, that you may love your neighbor with the
sincere, active, and devoted love which a brother shows
to his brother. It is necessary, for that purpose, to be
filled with humility, to practise abnegation, to have an
attractive model and sufficient grace; look how Jesus
treats you in the Sacrament and receive therein the
grace of fraternal chanty, for it was in instituting it
that the Saviour said, "It is My command that you
love one another as I have loved you."
Practice.
To pray much for each other, above all for those
who are under our charge.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 139
VI. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Spouse of Souls.
I. ADORATION.
IF Jesus is the most loving of fathers, the most ten
der of mothers, and the most devoted of brothers, He
is also the Spouse, the Spouse of the Church, the
Spouse of souls. It is a name which He Himself has
chosen, which He has an affection for, and by which
it is our duty to honor Him, because, if He bears so
sweet a name, He fulfills in an admirable manner its
responsibilities towards our souls, and shows all His
love of them with incomparable fidelity.
Adore then, in the tabernacle where He always re
mains, that He may never quit our souls which He has
espoused, adore in the tabernacle Jesus, the true Spouse,
the incomparable Spouse.
Hear Him announcing Himself to every Christian
soul by a promise of faithful love, a real vow of be
trothal: " I will espouse thee, and it will be forever: I
will espouse thee in justice, and in mercy, and in faith:
and thou shalt know with how much truth I am the
Lord and thy Spouse. Sponsabo te mihiin sempiternum
. . . in justitia et in miser ic or dia . . . et scies
quia ego Dominus." (Osee ii. 19.)
And when He comes upon the earth and in the ma
turity and the vigor of His thirty years He realizes His
union with humanity, do you hear the name by which
John Baptist salutes Him : " Behold the Spouse ; it is to
Him belongs the bride."
And even in the heaven of His glory, it is by this
name that He promises us the possession of perfect
happiness : Beati qui Docati sunt ad caenam nuptiarum
Agni!
Contemplate, Christian soul, contemplate thy Spouse:
behold His beauty, His qualities, His devotedness; the
140 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
beauties of His soul, of His heart, of His life, of His
divinity. Oh, how beautiful and how dazzling Thou
art, my Beloved: Ecce tu pulcher es, Dilecte mi, el
decorus ! Thou art the most beautiful of the children
of men : Speciosus forma prcc filiis hominum !
The union which Christ contracts with our souls in
espousing them consists of two degrees: grace here
below, and glory in heaven. Every soul in a state of
grace is His spouse. He loves it, He desires it, He
lives with it, He unites Himself to it. Sanctifying
grace is the sacred, vital, and permanent link of this in
effable union. The more it increases in intensity, the
more it enriches itself with merits, and the greater
the intimacy of the union of the soul with its divine
Spouse, the more abundant, exquisite, and lasting are
its joys; the more numerous, precious and beautiful
also are the fruits of this fertile union: I mean the acts
of the virtues, conceived in the union of the grace of
Jesus and of the free act of our soul to correspond
with it; engendered in labor, in strife, in sacrifice, but
always living in the incorruptible merit, which will
meet its rewards in heaven.
See now, how the Eucharist is used by Jesus to
make His adorable title of the Spouse of our souls shine
forth, to fulfill its functions, to draw the union closer,
to produce its fruits.
Is it not there that He gives Himself in truth to each
one of our souls in the personal, living, and vivifying
union of the Communion ?
Is it not from love that He comes to us, presents
Himself to us, and begs and conjures us to receive Him
and to unite ourselves with Him ?
Is it not there that love, intimacy, mutual confidence,
tenderness, fervor, develop themselves and are in
flamed, at the hearth of His Sacrament of love, of which
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 141
the primary end is to augment love in our souls, to set
them on fire, and to make them melt with love for the
true God, who desires to be their Spouse ?
Lastly, is it not in consequence of this fruitful union
that our soul produces all the generation of Christian
virtues, condemned without this Sacrament of life to
remain perpetually sterile ? For the Saviour has said,
" Whoever unites himself with Me and remains in Me,
he will bring forth much fruit, but without Me you can
do nothing."
Adore therefore in the Sacrament the Spouse of your
soul ; remember that you belong to Him, and give your
self up to Him with greater love and submission than
ever.
II. THANKSGIVING.
How you will bless your divine Spouse, with what
grateful love will you attach yourself to Him and will
serve Him, if you understand the incomprehensible
love which led Him to take your soul to be His spouse!
What is there in you that is good or beautiful which
can attract His eyes ? What were you ? What are
you now, even after He has chosen you, if you look
closely, not at what comes to you from Him, but at
what you are in yourself ?
You were the captive of Satan, condemned by the
divine anger, soiled from your birth, the issue of sin,
and your primary origin is nothingness! You were
born wounded, covered with bruises, infirm, power
less, tormented by the strangest kinds of evils, sub
jected to the most humiliating kinds of tyrannies!
Raised and espoused spite of all these things at the
moment of your baptism, you still kept your indigence,
your inherited weakness; and you are still nothing but
misery, contradiction, tending to evil!
142 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
Is it not true ?
But does not Jesus love you nevertheless ? He,
the Son of God all powerful and thrice holy ? He
loves you, without merits, without good qualities of
any kind. He loves you because He wills to love you,
finding in Himself alone, in His infinite goodness, in
His too great love, the reason for loving you.
He loves you, and that He may render you worthy
of His love, He has washed you in His blood, endowed
you with His own life, clothed you with His graces
and His merits.
He loves you, and every day, in order to be with
you, to renew in your soul His own beauty, to attach
Himself more intimately with you, each day He returns
here below, immolates Himself in sacrifice, and gives
Himself in nourishment.
Ah! if the characteristic of the sacred love which
unites spouses is the total and unreserved gift of the
one to the other in the unity, the tenderness and the
disinterestedness of every moment, can there be a
gift more true, a union more close, a more tender and
passionate love, than that of which the sublime impulse
impels Jesus to give Himself up to us in the Eucharist ?
Live in this love; let it be the immovable basis of
your confidence in Jesus, the loving Spouse of your soul.
III. REPARATION.
You know what is the ignominious name by which,
amongst men, the spouse who is unfaithful to her
vows is stigmatized.
Every soul which falls into mortal sin merits that
dishonorable title; it bears it in the presence of the
anger of God and the indignation of the angels; how
is it that it does not see it branded in burning char
acters on its conscience? Mortal sin is nevertheless
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 143
infidelity, treachery, perjury of the most sacred vows,
ingratitude towards the most constant love; it is the
adultery of the soul towards Jesus its Spouse.
Every soul in a state of mortal sin has become the
adulterous spouse. And if the law of fear condemned
the unfaithful spouse to be stoned, has not the law of
love, proved and demonstrated by so many benefits of
the divine Spouse, good reason to condemn it to
death, to the death of hell ?
Pity the Spouse so faithful, so devoted, so loving;
so many times betrayed, abandoned, despised. Ap
proach His Heart and endeavor to understand the tor
tures, the deep and inexpressible sorrows caused Him
by ingratitude.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for the grace of fidelity: fidelity to the promises
of your baptism; fidelity to the duties of your state;
fidelity to your daily resolutions; in a word, fidelity to
your divine Spouse, so faithful in loving you, in sus
taining you, in raising you, in bearing with you, in
encouraging- you, in pardoning you, and who if you are
faithful in loving Him until the end, will be faithful in
recompensing you.
Practice.
To have, in all your prayers, the intention of spe
cially recommending all persons consecrated to God.
VII. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Friend.
I. ADORATION.
YES, I know it, I believe it, Thou hast told me so
plainly, and how many times have 1 not clearly felt it?
144 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
Thou art our Friend, oh Jesus, Son of the Most
High, my Creator and my God, and Thou wiliest that
we should acknowledge Thee in that quality, giving
Thee that name, honoring Thee, treating and loving
Thee as the true Friend, the sure Friend, the faithful
Friend, the Friend of every moment, the humble and
devoted Friend.
But friendship is reciprocal; Thou canst not be our
friend without our becoming Thy friends. The in
vestiture of Thy divine friendship, the name of friends,
the grace of being able to love Thee as friends, the in
credible honor and the fervor of a real friendship with
Thee, — Thou gavest us all of this in the Last Supper,
after the institution of the Eucharist, as though it were
to tell us that it is in the Sacrament Thou art our
Friend, by the reception of the Sacrament that we be
come Thy friends, capable of loving Thee, worthy of
doing so, and finding in the Eucharist itself the occa
sion and the most favorable means of friendship:
"No, henceforth I will not call you servants, but
friends, because all that I have received of My Father
I have communicated it to you ; Jam non dicam vos
servos . . . vos autem dixi amicos."
Friendship is made up of equality in the conditions,
of life in common, of the union of souls.
First, there can be no friendship between those who
are separated by a too great difference of condition.
But let the greater abase himself to the level of the
lower, let him place himself at his service, and a sure
and durable friendship will be the result.
Jesus, so sincere a friend, is it not for that that Thou
didst become a man like me, poor and suffering like
me, poorer, more persecuted than I ? Is it not for that
that Thou hast made Thyself the humble Sacrament,
divested of all, dependent upon all — in a word, my
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 145
property, given up wholly to my service? Amicus
. . . erit tibi quasi cequalis ; si autem humiliaverit
se . . . habebis amicitiam bonam. (Ecclus. xxii.)
Second, nothing occupies a larger portion in the
laws of friendship than life in common, assiduous
presence, frequent relations, participation in sorrows
and in joys : Nihil ita proprium est amicitice, sicut con-
Diver e amico. (D. Thorn.)
And behold, oh true Friend, wherefore Thou re-
mainest always amongst us, why Thou invitest us to
Thy table, why Thou wiliest that we should have re
course to Thee ceaselessly; obliging Thee to console
us in our troubles, and to partake of all our burdens with
us : Venite ad me omnes et ego reficiam vos.
Third and lastly, friendship wills the union of souls, it
tends to it with all its strength, it desires to have it as
close as possible; its dream and its perfection, its re
pose and its happiness are, consequently, complete, ab
solute unity: Ex ambobus fieri unitm. (Phil.)
But Thou alone, oh perfect Friend, Thou alone dost
fully offer to our heart the realization of this our de
sire, the satisfaction of this our need! Thy sanctify
ing grace makes us one with Thee, by participation in
the same divine life: Tu in me et ego in eis. The
communion extends, deepens, seals in the fire of love
this vital union, wherein we are melted in Thee, rather
fed upon by Thee than fed on Thee; Qui manducat
meam carnem et bibit meum sanguinem in me manet et
ego in eo.
Oh Jesus! on whose breast I may repose my weary
head, where I may feel the pulsations of the heart of
the most devoted, the most delicate and the most
tender of friends, Jesus who is the Source, the reason,
the model and the guarantee of all true friendship-
Jesus, the Friend, I adore Thee, I cast myself at Thy
146 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
feet, I acknowledge Thee and I choose Thee even as
the best of all Friends! How beautiful and amiable
Thou art, in all ways desirable, oh my best beloved
friend! Totus desiderabilis est dilectus meus, et ipse
est amicus meus. (Cant.) Ah, who will give me, Lord
Jesus, to find Thee alone, to open to Thee all my heart,
and to enjoy being with Thee as much as my soul de
sires, in such a manner that, forgotten by and forget
ting every creature, I may converse with Thee as
those do who love one another, the friend alone with
the friend! Thou art, oh Jesus, my sole, real, best
beloved, chosen amongst ten thousand, in whom my
love has forever placed its delight.
"Friend too loving, how is it possible better to rec
ognize the love which Thou showest me by giving
Thyself to me in the Communion, than by giving up
my heart to Thee in the closest possible union ? Then
Thou wilt say to me: Thou wiliest to be with me, I
will be with thee; and I will make answer: Oh, deign,
Lord, to remain with me; it is with all my heart that I
desire to remain with Thee! " (Imit. bk. LV., c. xiv.)
II. THANKSGIVING.
How shall we sufficiently thank the divine Friend
for the gift of His friendship to us, wherein we find
not only the most exalted degree of honor, the most
powerful succor, the surest of supports, consolation in
our troubles, compassion in our falls, but also grace,
examples, the guarantee of the most complete friend
ship with our fellows ?
Friendship is one of the most precious possessions
of man. The wisdom of past ages says that " it is
more necessary to us than fire and water." (Cicero.)
It adds "I do not know if, with the exception of wis-
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 147
dom, the gods have given anything to man better than
friendship; to take away friendship from human life
would be tantamount to removing the sun from the
world."
Divine wisdom adds, if it be possible, to these eulo
gies of friendship, but with what superior authority!
"A faithful friend is a powerful protection: he who
has found him has found a treasure: Amicus fidelis
protectio fortis; qui autem invenit ilium invenit thes-
aurum." " No, nothing is comparable to a faithful
friend; there is no amount of gold or of silver which
is worth the excellence of his fidelity: Amico fideli
nulla est comparatio: non est digna ponder atio auri
et argenti contra bonitatem fidei illius." " A faithful
friend! Why it is a balm of life and of immortality:
Amicus fidelis medicamentum mice et immortali-
tatis." (Ecclus. vi. 16.)
How then can we sufficiently bless the Son of God
for not having contented Himself with being our
Saviour, our chief, our guide, but for having willed to
be also our friend, our faithful friend ?
Oh! yes, the faithful friend! The friend of Peter in
his faith and of Peter in his fall; the friend of Lazarus
in his prosperity and of Lazarus in his death; the friend
of Judas the apostle and of Judas the traitor. Do we
not know something ourselves of this admirable, con
stant, and invincible fidelity of Jesus in loving us, in
protecting us, in heaping favors, privileged attentions
upon us, even when we did not love Him ?
It is because " He who is a real friend loves at all
times, in evil as well as in good days; He is never so
much a brother to His friend as in trials: Omni tern-
pore diligit qui amicus est: et f rater in angustiis com-
probatur: (Prov. xvii. 17.) Pay to the friendship of
Jesus your immense debt of gratitude.
148 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
III. REPARATION.
Alas! if Jesus grants us an honor, a grace, and an in
estimable treasure in desiring to be our friend, what
does He but too often find in this excess of exquisite
love, in this ineffable condescension of a God for a
creature that is nothingness ? A fresh and specially
bitter source of ingratitude, fed by the forgetfulness,
the treachery, and the perjury of those whom He has
raised to His friendship, whom He has assembled be
neath His roof, with whom He has shared His bread,
His own flesh, drank of the same chalice of His blood,
and in whom He confided as in sincere friends.
You know the bitterness and the desolation of His
complaint over the treachery of Judas: " If it had been
My enemy who betrayed Me I could perhaps have
borne it, but thou with whom I had but one sole
heart, with whom I dwelt in the house of God, our
Father, thou who shared with Me in the sweet festi
vals of friendship! '"
You remember the distress and the trembling which
shook the heart of the divine Friend in presence of the
traitor who, at the very moment of receiving the
Eucharist, was plotting to deliver up His dear Master.
"It is written," the betrayed Friend sorrowfully ex
claimed, "he will lift up his heel against Me to crush
Me, he who eats at My table! "
The great sorrows of the most amiable Friend are
therefore that He was betrayed, that He was delivered
up treacherously to the devil by sin, whilst He was
being approached under the cover of friendship, and
after Judas had kissed Him at the Communion with the
kiss of a friend, a kiss being, afterwards, the signal
given to the devil, present in the soul of the sacrilegious
traitor to seize Jesus and insult Him.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 149
Compassionate the betrayed Heart, the despised Heart,
the Heart rent with anguish, overwhelmed with distress
and humiliation, the heart of the Friend who remains
silent in presence of outrages and unceasing in His pa
tience, wholly occupied in loving His faithless friends,
so that He may bring them back by dint of love.
Examine your thoughts and see how you accomplish
the duties of friendship towards the Friend of the
Sacrament.
For there is a friend of the table, of enjoyments and
of consolations, who withdraws on the day of trial:
Est amicus mensce; do you not belong to that class ?
Do you believe firmly that Jesus is your Friend, and
that you are under an obligation to fulfill all the duties
of friendship towards Him ?
Is your affection for Him lively and sincere ? Do
you love Him as the best of your friends ? Have you
every confidence in Him, or do you not often doubt
His good will to help you ?
Do you often visit Him ? Do you feel the need of
seeing Him and of conversing with Him ? Do you
accept as often as He gives you an invitation to sit
down at His table ? Yet these are two of the duties of
real friendship.
Lastly, do you remain faithful to Him in presence of
the seductions, of the enjoyments, of the consolations
which human affections bring with them ? Do you
then still keep in your heart the place of honor for
Him, the first place, to which He has every right ?
Remember that He ought to be the best beloved of
all, the only beloved, the sole friend chosen amongst a
thousand, in whom we may find perfect repose, in
whom we may place perfect confidence, to whom
we ought without reserve to give all our heart.
We can only love others because of Him, but we
150 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
love Jesus for Himself, and it is a duty to love Him in
all truth and to the extent of real adoration.
In addition, all human friendship which is not in
spired, is not sustained, is not governed, and is not
moderated by friendship for the divine Friend, is dan
gerous, and often most culpable ; Qui timet Dominum
ceque habebit amicitiam bonam; quoniam secundum
ilium er it amicus illius. (Ecclus. vi. 15.)
Examine yourself thoroughly in regard to all these
points: the kingdom of our affections is the most im
portant, but not the most easy to govern. ''Surround
your heart with all possible care," says the Holy Spirit,
"for it is from the heart that all life proceeds " : Omni
custodia custodi cor tuum : ex ipso enim omnis vita
procedit !
IV. PRAYER.
Earnestly ask for grace to keep in your heart until
your death the holy friendship of Jesus inviolate, alive,
and full of trust.
No other friend can be as much to you as this Friend
who delivers up to you His life: Quis amicitior nobis
quam qui pro nobis corpus suum tradidit? (S. Amb.)
But it is above all at the hour of your death, on that
last day of anguish, when nature, sickness and your
own conscience will wage inveterate and decisive
combats against you, it is then that you will need a
friend, and that Friend who alone will bring you
"remedies of life and of immortality," peace and
hope, in the Sacrament of His flesh and of His blood,
the supreme viaticum of the dying.
Make then the resolution to behave towards Him
not as a slave, under the influence of fear, not as a
servant, guided solely by interest, but as a true friend,
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 151
whose love for Him whom he loves and whose desire
to please Him are the sole rule, the sole satisfaction.
Let this love render you sensitive to all that concerns
Him, assiduous in your attentions towards His Person,
happy to do Him pleasure, devoted to His interests,
compassionate in His troubles, cooperating generously
in His great work of the salvation of the world.
Lastly, pray most specially for those who, above
all others, bear the elect title of friends of Jesus — I
mean His priests. Let them be real friends to the di
vine Friend who, loving them so much, counts so much
upon them— faithful, devoted, intelligent in regard to
His rights, doing all that He requires, attentive to His
needs, tender to His weaknesses; let them be to Him
a support, a refuge, a repose, a joy; since it is for that
purpose that He has consecrated them "to be His
dearest friends " : Simon Joannis, diligis me plus his ?
Practice.
To have recourse to the divine Friend of the taber
nacle in every position, in every trouble: to Him be
fore any other friend.
152 The Human Titles of the Eiicharist.
VIII. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Counsellor.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE, under this name of great glory for Jesus and
of great utility to you, the divine Friend of the Sacra
ment, who remains upon the altar as formerly upon
the propitiatory of the ark, to counsel, enlighten, direct
all those whom He has undertaken to bring to eternal
salvation.
"Counsellor, Angel of the great Counsel," is one of
the authentic names of the Word Incarnate: Et DOC-
abitur nomen ejus Consiliarius. (Isaias ix. 6.) "The
spirit of counsel shall repose in Him " — and with what
perfection!
It is not only by means of His natural prudence, the
clearness of His intellect, His sincere devotion, that
Jesus is capable of giving good counsel: it is by a
triple title that none but He alone has.
First, the title of Eternal Wisdom. "He dwells in
the counsel from the beginning; He assists at the
birth of all learned and wise thoughts ": In consilio
habito et eruditis inter sum cogitationibus ; "counsel is
His and prudence and equity": Meum est consilium ;
His, because His is increated knowledge, the perfect
mirror of all the divine thoughts.
Then, by means of the title of created but blessed
knowledge, of which the hypostatic union lighted the
inextinguishable flame in His soul and which shows
Him in God Himself, without shadow, all the will of
God, in relation to angels and men, the future of all
that will be, and the most secret thoughts of all hearts.
Lastly, by means of His office of Head and of Pastor
of humanity, which He has to lead, defend, and assist
in all its needs and in all its paths; a knowledge at
one and the same time infused into His soul from the
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 153
moment of its formation, and acquired by His own ex
perience of our human life, of its perils, of its strifes,
and of its sufferings.
Ah! He has the knowledge, He has the prudence,
He has the experience, He has the disinterestedness
and the devotion, of which is made the perfect and
sure, faithful and constant counsellor! He can offer
Himself, as such, to every anxious soul, seeking its
way lost in darkness, a prey to perplexity shaken by
doubt, saying to it, "In Me is the grace of all ways
and of all truth, the only hope of all virtue and of all
life " : In me gratia omnis 'vice et veritatis ; in me omnis
spes vitce et virtiitis.
Adore Him in the memory of His life, wholly oc
cupied in sowing good, wise, and great counsels, those
which He addressed to crowds, and through them to
the whole world; to fly from sin, to do penance, to
prefer the life of the soul to that of the body, and to
sell all in order to acquire the eternal treasure; those
which He addressed to certain persons with regard to
their individual path: the perfect counsels of poverty,
of chastity, and of obedience; those, lastly which He
gave in private to His Apostles, to His friends, to those
who came to consult Him.
But can He still counsel us now that He has placed
upon His lips the seal of the inert species of the Sac
rament ? Does He hear us, is He moved by our prayers
and our anguish in the rigid insensibility which the
Eucharistic state presents to us ?
Ah! wherefore should this veil, formed at once of
trial and of mercy, deprive the Saviour of one of the
essential ends of His coming upon earth ? Why
should He deprive us of one of the helps which we
most need to find in Him ?
Spite of appearances, He has come back in the Sac-
154 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
rament that He may there lead men, govern them from
there, and from there exercise His functions of Head
and of Pastor, of Guide and of Priest. Could that be
done if He had not an intercourse with us corporal as
well as spiritual; if we could not speak to Him, if He
could not hear us and if we could not receive His
answers ?
It is, therefore, our duty to show our needs to Him,
to submit to Him our difficulties, to place before Him
our doubts, to question and to consult Him. Let us be
certain that He hears us, that He sees us, and that His
heart experiences the same feelings as ours.
As to His answers, seeing that it is not for the body
to comprehend them, or even in fact to carry them
into practice, but for the soul, He will make His an
swers to the soul; He will make them vivid, penetrat
ing, convincing; He will impress them on the soul in
the clearest characters, in resolute convictions, in cou
rageous determination, and He will seal them with the
divine seal of peace, of interior content.
He will reply to you also by the voice of His ex
ample, recalling to you how He acted in a call similar
to yours, and by exciting you to do as He did.
He will reply to you, moreover, by the tendency and
the tenor which will be taken by events on the issue
of which you consult Him, by giving you the inspira
tion and the grace of acquiescing in them peacefully.
Lastly, He will inspire authorized persons, whom
you will consult in His name, to give you solutions
which will pacify you.
Behold the numerous means which He has for an
swering you and piercing the veil of the Sacrament in
your favor.
Oh! the adorable Counsellor of souls! Give to Him,
that you may adore Him in this His perfection and
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 155
office, your mind and judgment; abandon yourself to
Him, despise your own prudence and your own wisdom,
and deliver yourself up into the hands of His counsel.
II. THANKSGIVING.
The world ironically says to those who, having con
fided in the counsels of sects, have been miserably
deceived: "Counsellors are not payers." It means
that we must not confide in every counsellor: that
there are amongst them men who are false and per
verse; that amongst those who really give good coun
sel there are few who do so with absolute disinterest
edness; still fewer those who give to the persons who
consult them an efficacious succor carried into action
and devotedness to put their counsels into execution.
But with our adorable Counsellor it is something
quite different. Ah! it is because He shows Himself
to be a trustworthy and devoted Counsellor, a true
friend of whoever may have recourse to Him! He not
only gives counsel but also the grace to follow it: Lex
per Moysen, gratia et veritas per Jesum. (John i. 17.)
That is to say that He does not merely speak to the
mind, but He gains it over: He persuades it by in
teriorly enlightening it; He excites and determines the
will, He gives strength and courage. Then in the
execution of it, He supports, raises up, dissipates the
fogs occasioned by the delays, the difficulties of the
work; He renews the clearness and the vigor of the
first resolve; He lends His aid for the removing of
obstacles, or at least of smoothing them down; He
does not take His departure until the end is reached.
Is it not so ? And when you consult Him respecting
any important affair and one that takes a long time to
execute, does not His daily morning visit during all
the time that it lasts, renew in you the light, the
156 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
strength, and the constancy necessary for pursuing it
until the term is reached ?
Ah! it is because He has power as well as wisdom,
and that both the one and the other are at the disposal
of His goodness!
Therefore, it is with a deep feeling of gratitude that
we must say, with the Author of the Imitation : ' ' Here
tofore the children of Israel said to Moses: Speak
thou to us, lest we die! Not thus, oh Lord, not thus
do I pray, but rather with the prophet Samuel I humbly
and longingly entreat Thee, Speak Lord, for Thy serv
ant heareth. Let not Moses nor any of the prophets
speak to me, but speak Thou rather, oh Lord God,
who art the inspirer and enligrftener of all the prophets,
for Thou alone, without them, canst perfectly instruct
me, but they without Thee can do nothing. They may
indeed count forth words, but they give not the spirit.
They speak well, but if Thou be silent, they do not set
the heart on fire. They deliver the letter, but Thou
disclosest the sense. They publish mysteries, but Thou
explainest the meaning of them. They declare the
commandments, but Thou enablest us to keep them.
They show the way, but Thou givest strength to
walk in it. They work only exteriorly, but Thou in-
structest and enlightenest the heart. They water ex-
teriorily, but Thou givest the increase. They cry out
with words, but Thou givest understanding to the
hearing." (Bk. III. c. ii.)
Oh! Counsellor so truly sincere and devoted, "to
whom shall we go ? Thou alone hast the words of life ! "
111. REPARATION.
If you desire to be sincere towards yourself, you
will bitterly deplore a capital defect too frequently felt
in your life, which has been the cause of many sins
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 157
and the source of many bitter deceptions. It is your
precipitation in deciding and in acting, without asking
counsel in prayer, without submitting your projects,
without having your ways examined and judged by
the divine Counsellor, according to the very wise pre
cept given by Tobias to his friends: "Pray to the
Lord at all times ; ask Him to direct all thy ways, and let
all thy projects, all thy intentions, all thy resolutions,"
having been made in His presence, "remain in Him,"
by continuance in prayer and recourse to Him: Omni
tempore benedic Deum, et pete ab eo ut vias tuas dirt-
gat, et omnia consilia tua in ipso permaneant. (Tob.
iv. 20.)
This precipitation comes from secret pride, pre
sumption, confidence in our ideas, in our strength. It
is the worst of all kinds of pride, that which made
Lucifer fall in heaven and Adam in paradise.
The essence and the ultimate reason of the divine
Being is to be independent: Ens a se, to be the pure
act, without cause: Actus purus; the essence and the
ultimate reason of the creature is to depend: Ens ab
alio, non ens. Not to will to depend, to cease to lean
upon the necessary cause, and to will to lean upon
ourself, is therefore to violate the right of God, the
work of God, the relation of the creature to the Crea
tor in a thing which is essential; it is radical pride,
whence flows all sin. It is also the source of decep
tions, of vexations, and of misfortunes without number.
Question your life, relate your own history to your
self;' has not the Lord been pleased to "scatter all the
counsels " which you have not taken at His feet,
which you have not renewed and rendered sure by
means of assiduous prayer? He has said: "I will
make the wisdom of the wise to be lost and I will re
prove the prudence of the prudent," if they are not
158 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
humble enough to humble their wisdom and prudence
before Me in prayer and submission.
Josue and the Israelites were grossly deceived by the
Gabaonites, says the Imitation, because they did not first
consult the mouth of the Lord: Os Domini prius non
in terrogaverunt.
And you ?
In order to make reparation, follow the advice of the
pious author. "If in all events thou rule not thyself
by the outward appearance, nor look on what thou
seest or hearest with a carnal eye, but presently, on
every occasion, dost enter, like Moses, into the taber
nacle, to consult the Lord, thou shalt sometimes hear
the divine answer and come out instructed in many
things present and to come." (Bk. III. c. xxxviii.)
IV. PRAYER.
Enjoy at the feet of the divine Counsellor of the
tabernacle the sweet and comforting words of Ec-
clesiasticus, which were spoken first of all of Jesus:
" Be attentive to the holy man, whom you see faithful
in observing the fear of God, whose soul is one with
your soul, and who has compassion on you and weeps
with you if you come in contact with anything in the
darkness: " Cujus anima est secundum animam tuam,
et qui cum titubaveris in tenebris, condoleat tibi. Keep
close to a heart of good counsel: Cor boni consilii
statue tecum : nothing is more precious than he. He
will tell you in a single word more of truth than
seven learned men who make it their profession to
look far and high: Anima viri sancti enuntiat ali-
quando vera, quam septem circumspectatores sedentes
in excelso ad speculandum. But for that you must
pray, pray to the Most High to direct your paths in
the truth. (Ecclus. xxxvii. 15, 19.)
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 159
In a word: desire sincerely to know and to practise
the will of God in regard to you; ask the divine Coun
sellor, in prayer, to manifest it to you; He will never
fail, but it will be on one sole condition: that you will
have more confidence in Him than in the creature, and
that you will consult Him before it and more than it:
Multi pacifici sint tibi : et consiliarius sit tibi unus de
mille, (Ecclus. vi. 6.)
If then you are floating on a sea of uncertainty,
tossed by doubt, not knowing what to do, go to the
Angel of the great Council.
If your spirit is overwhelmed, your soul devoid of
life, your courage weakened, call to your help the Angel
of the great Council.
If you are in a dangerous position, in the midst of
snares out of which you do not know how to escape,
call and invoke the Angel of the great Council.
If you are deliberating and are uncertain and per
plexed as to your choice of a state of life, implore the
Angel of the great Council, and He will trace out for
you a path even in the desert.
In dangers, persecutions, sorrows, difficulties, if you
cannot see your way out of them, call on the Angel
of the great Council, and say to him, with Esther:
"Oh, Lord, my Master, who art our sole King, help
me in my desolation, for apart from Thee I have no
help or succor: " Domine mi, qui Rex noster es solus,
adjuva me solitariam, et cujus prceter te milliis est
auxiliator alms. (Esth. xiv. 3.)
Practice.
To place before the divine Counsellor every morning
the affairs of the day, and to come back and take
counsel of Him whenever anything happens.
160 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
IX. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Good Shepherd.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE, hail with joy, contemplate with love and
gratitude, the Good Shepherd present to you under the
veils of the Sacrament.
Oh, how sweet it is to pronounce that name! What
touching remembrances of kindness it evokes! What
confidence it gives, what peace and abandonment of
the soul which knows itself to be the sheep, if not al
ways faithful at least desirous to become so, of this
most kind Shepherd!
Listen to Jesus appropriating to Himself, with loving
jealousy, the title and the characteristics of the good
shepherd: "I am the good Shepherd; the good Shep
herd giveth His life for His sheep. The hireling takes
flight when he sees the wolf, because he cares but lit
tle for the sheep which do not belong to him. As for
Me, I am the good Shepherd, and I know My sheep,
and My sheep know Me. I know them even as I
know My Father, and I give My life for them. They
listen to My voice and I know them, and they follow
Me. I give them eternal life; they will not perish,
and no one will snatch them out of My hands."
Behold the good Shepherd engaged in His occupa
tion! His Father's flock had been dispersed, wander
ing hither and thither, the prey of wolves. The infernal
beast was killing, leading astray the sheep of the fold,
and no one was defending them. Mercenary shepherds
had been traitors and accomplices of the wolf through
egotism, occupying themselves solely with shearing
the sheep that they might enrich themselves, and kill
ing them to eat them. The good Shepherd came
to bring back the sheep of the fold; He set Him
self to pursue them, He called them, implored them,
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 161
gained them; the wounded He took on His shoulders;
the weakest He did not neglect; and of them all He
formed one single flock, which He leads to sacred pas
tures, which He cares for, which He defends even at
the peril of His life.
To watch His sheep, to live in the midst of them,
never to abandon them, day or night, because they are
defenceless; to lead them to good pastures and remove
them from bad ones; to dress the sores of the
wounded and to be mindful of the delicacy of the lit
tle lambs; to watch for the wolf, to drive him away,
to fight him, and to prevent him, at all costs, from
slaying the flock— such are the labors of the true
shepherd. Jesus consecrated His life to the fulfillment
of them; He spared nothing, even wearing Himself
out and consuming Himself for His sheep.
He called them, and walked before them, setting
them good examples. He nourished them with the
good pastures of truth, He fed them with the waters
of all consolations and of all hopes; He wearied Him
self with hastening after the wandering; He strove
hand to hand with the Satanic wolf and died from his
cruel blows. But what does it signify ? Risen again,
He hastens to Emmaus after two lost sheep; He
appoints for His flock a visible shepherd who helps Him
in His task, and He requires of him nothing for leading
His sheep and His lambs except to love them.
Lastly, He makes of Himself a presence which shall
never end; He multiplies it that He may find Himself
in the midst of all the folds of His great flock, spread
over the whole world; and what is more marvellous
still, He makes Himself the food and the drink of His
sheep, He gives them His own flesh to eat, His own
blood to drink!
O Christians, adore, contemplate, salute, love the
1 62 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
dear Shepherd of your souls, the most sweet Christ of
the Sacrament.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Dwell upon these truths and in them, that your soul
may feel all the love, all the sweetness of them, and
then will spring forth impulses of gratitude.
Is there anything sweeter than this comparison of
the shepherd and the sheep, which symbolizes the rela
tions Jesus Christ, our Creator nevertheless and our
judge, wills to have with us ?
The shepherd is a man who is simple, good, patient,
humble, preserved by his very occupation from the
vices of cities, and from anger, passion, and severity.
He is a man who devotes himself, abandoning his cot
tage, his bed, his hearth, to live in the midst of his
sheep, by night as well as by day, always attentive,
alert, not even taking his meals without anxiety
and vigilance. Let a sheep be wounded, let it be
feeling the burden of its fecundity, let young lambs be
added to his flock: all these are so many causes which
oblige the shepherd to slacken his pace, to be more
patient, to be on the watch, to dress wounds, to re
double his solicitude. But also what joy to see his
sheep crowding round him, running at his first call,
eating from his hand, sleeping on his bosom!
Jesus, gentle Shepherd, it is indeed in this manner
that Thou dost behave towards us! And how do these
characteristics which Jacob and David, those true
shepherds, gave to themselves, delineate, albeit very in
completely, Thy own likeness of the good shepherd!
Yes, it is by night and by day that Thou dost consume
Thyself with watchings under the veil of the Eucharist:
Non dormitaUt neque dormiet qui custodit Israel ! It
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 163
is in Thy arms, on Thy heart that Thou dost receive us
and bear us in the Communion: Sicut pastor gregem
suum pascet, in brachio suo congregabit agnos, et in
sifiu levabit, fcrtas ipse portabit ! It is from Thy hand
that we eat, and from Thy hand, covered by that of the
priest, that we receive — what ? The heavenly food of
Thy own flesh, the refreshing and strengthening
beverage of Thy own blood: Accepit pattern in manus
suas et ait : Accipite ! And divesting Thyself, it is with
Thy virtues, with Thy merits, with Thy royal dignity
that Thou dost clothe our misery, warm our coldness,
enrich our indigence. All that Thou hadst taken from
us Thou restorest to us, showing us clearly thereby
that Thou didst take it only for our good: Hoc quod
de nostro assiimpit, Mum nobis contulit ad salutem.
Most kind Shepherd, what do we not owe Thee ?
Be Thou at least blessed by my powerlessness to bless
Thee sufficiently!
III. REPARATION.
The good shepherd finds his recompense in the wel
fare of his sheep, in the security of his flock, and in
its increase. By his office of complete devotedness, he
is sufficiently recompensed when it procures the per
fect good of his sheep. And our adorable Shepherd
would look upon all He has suffered as very little, He
would be ready to suffer still more, if we would at
least profit by His sacrifices.
But alas! how different it is! How many sheep are
lost, spite of His vigilance, and are determined to throw
themselves into the jaws of the wolfish ravishers.
How many are disobedient, imprudent, poisoning
themselves, spite of His persistent calls, by feeding in
pastures and drinking waters which the world, the
flesh, and vanity present to them with deceptive at-
1 64 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
tractions! How many there are who brought back
from afar, having had their mortal wounds dressed
and attended to with the most persevering tenderness,
return to evil ways, abandoning their merciful Shep
herd, wounding His heart by their ingratitude and con
demning His love to the most wretched failure.
Examine your own conduct towards the good
Shepherd; see if your fidelity and your docility have
responded to His care. And if you are obliged to con
fess, alas! that you have been too often an ungrateful
or rebellious sheep, sigh over it, come back more sin
cerely to Him, henceforth avoid the paths, even should
they be pleasant and flowery, which lead you to evil.
Lastly, in order to make some little amends to this
Shepherd, whose heart is only too loving, be a sheep all
the more assiduous, all the more eager, loving and
tender because of the too great number of others who
make His heart suffer by ungrateful abandonment.
IV. PRAYER.
Delight to repeat, whilst fixing your suppliant and
confiding eyes upon the tabernacle, the touching
prayer of Saint Thomas: "Good Shepherd, Jesus, oh
true Bread of life, have pity on us, feed us, protect us;
enable us to see what is the true good in the land of the
living!"
Bone Pastor, pants vere
Jesu, nostri miserere.
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere,
Tu nos bona fac videre
In terra viventium !
Practice.
To abandon ourselves with confidence to the good
Shepherd, and to follow His guidance with generous
fidelity.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 165
X. Jesus in the Sacrament is the Physician of Souls.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE, with a deep sense of your incurable infirm
ity, amidst the exhaustion into which the innumerable
maladies of your body and soul plunge you — adore
with an urgent desire, with the cry of an ardent prayer
and of a humble confidence that you will be listened
to by the most kind, the most powerful Jesus,
under the title of "Physician," which He has willed
to take, in which He glories, and the functions of
which He has exercised since He came upon earth,
formerly in His mortal life and now in His Eucharist.
" It is not those who are well who need a physician,
but those who are sick:" Non egent qui sani sunt
medico, sed qui male habenl. (Luke v. 15.) And He
is the Physician of human nature, of the soul and of
the body, of the whole universe and of all times!
Oh! how sick the world was and in what need it
stood of a powerful and wise physician! How sick it
still is and how necessary it is that the heavenly Physi
cian, who has undertaken to cure it, should not abandon
it but continue towards it His assiduous care.
Since the day when the first man ate of the forbidden
fruit, poison entered into the veins of humanity, de
ranged its organism, corrupted its blood, rendered
it weak, easily susceptible to evil, incapable of being
ever radically cured, always exposed to the most ter
rible accidents, to the most complicated maladies, to
the most dreadful results.
This poison of the mind and the body circulates in
the will, in the intellect, in all the faculties, all the
passions, where sin has extended its ravages, in
fecting, disorganizing, corrupting, paralyzing, leading
to death and to decomposition, for which there is no
1 66 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
remedy. The nature of the sicknesses of the soul would
take still longer time to define than even those of the
body, which are already incredible. Saint Augustine
has well said, " For the great patient who lay stretched
out over the whole earth, a great doctor was necessary : "
Magnus de coelo venit medicits quia magnus per totum
orbem terrce jacebat cegrotus. (Serm. 9. de Verb.
Dom.)
He came and set Himself to attend and to cure.
In Himself, first of all, as in its vital principle and in
its essential organ, He cured the whole of humanity;
by the contact and the personal union of His divinity
with the soul and the body which He assumed He
constituted a humanity wholly healthy, living, and per
fect ; and of this humanity He made a vivifying principle,
a powerful antidote, which cures and restores all men
who are inoculated with it. It is thus that Isaias
speaks: De livore ejus sanati sumus.
He inoculates this restorative virus by means of His
words, which cure the intellect, by His goodness and
His love, which make their hearts revive, by His
Sacraments, which penetrate into souls and make His
virtues, His dispositions, His life circulate in them.
He even cures our bodies, formerly by means of the
miracles which restored them to health, and now in
assuaging their pangs by Communion, and placing
in them the pledge of a glorious resurrection.
Honor the physician, says the Holy Spirit, for
it is the Almighty who has created Him in His mercy
to cure us : Honor a medicum propter necessitate™ ;
etenim ilium creavit Altissimus, a Deo est omnis
medela. (Ecclus. xxxviii.)
Honor then, adore in Jesus, the knowledge and the
perfect wisdom of the physician, for He is acquainted
by His knowledge and by His experience with all our
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 167
ills and all their remedies; honor, adore in Him the in
defatigable devotedness which no wound repels,
which no sick man, however rebellious and ungrateful
he may be, can ever weary; honor Him and confide to
Him your cure, but obey all His prescriptions with
scrupulous fidelity, and abandon yourself to His good
ness, to His power, to His wisdom, without ever
entertaining any doubts with regard to Him.
II. THANKSGIVING.
We cannot recall to mind, without being touched by
it and grateful for it, the goodness, the sweetness, the
patience, the earnestness with which Jesus, the Physi
cian of souls and of bodies, applied Himself to cure
them during His life.
He visited the sick, He called them to Him, He
allowed them to surround Him, He always had a
multitude of them with Him: Magna multitude)
languentium ; and He cured them all: Et curabantur
omnes. Sometimes by a word, sometimes by a touch,
approaching the sick man, bending down over him and
giving him, with health of the body, a kind word of en
couragement, and often even faith, conversion, and
peace of soul.
To those who were suffering from moral maladies,
worse than those of the body, to the afflicted, to the
discouraged, to all who weep, He gave His promise to
cure them, to raise them up, to renew them, asking
them for nothing except to come to Him, to believe in
His heart and confidently to cast therein their troubles
and their burdens: Venite ad me omnes qui labor atis
. . . et ego reficiam vos.
He does more now, or if you prefer it, He extends
1 68 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
His curative action and exercises it in a manner in
which His love shines forth still more brightly. He
comes to each particular soul, He visits it and pene
trates into it, that He may take account of all the
wounds, of all the discomforts, of all the sources of its
sufferings. He visits all, penetrates everywhere, to cure
all. He comes in person and His visit is prolonged;
He stays near the patient, He dwells with him, He ap
plies the remedy. All His remedies are enclosed in
one single remedy, which is marvellous; it is Himself,
yes, His divinity and His humanity, His soul and His
body, His blood and His heart, His virtues and His
merits; of all these He has made a remedy, a balm of
life and of immortality: Pants pharmacum immor-
talitatis est, mortis antidotum, me die amentum purgans
vitia et omnia pellens mala (S. Ign. Antioch.), and He
applies it to the soul, to the heart, to the faculties, to
the passions. He returns every day, because He is
devoted and assiduous; and each day He applies with
the same gentleness, the same condescension, the
divine remedy which encloses all virtues, all efficacy.
Oh ! how sweet is the remedy, how easy to take is the
beverage! The Holy Spirit has well said, "The heav
enly Physician has made remedies full of sweetness, a
perfumed oil, and He will never weary of attending us : "
In his curans mitigabit dolor em, et unguentarius faciet
pigmenta suavitatis, et unctiones conficiet sanitatis, et
11011 consummabuntur opera ejus. (Ecclus. xxxviii.)
The cure is slow, is not very manifest, often counter
acted and delayed by the imprudence and the disobe
dience of the patient; it does not signify! He is never
rebuffed, and He returns with the same tender solici
tude; He will do so down to the end, to the very last
day of the patient's life.
Oh! charitable and sweet Physician! Who would
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 169
not have confidence in Him, and who would not thank
Him gratefully, for never being weary of curing us.
III. REPARATION.
Endeavor to see without subterfuge, without illu
sion, the number, the gravity, the horrible nature of
the maladies of which your soul has already felt the
mortal attacks, and by which it is always threatened.
Sensuality is the fire always burning in the very
centre of your being, the always purulent source; the
medium in which you live, the air which you breathe,
the whole sensible creation acts from the exterior upon
this internal fire. Oh, if you could but thoroughly
comprehend your corruption and your weakness, how
you would despise yourself, and with what absolute
and humble confidence you would have recourse to
the most merciful Physician!
Instead of that, we keep far away from Him, we
despise His remedies; we prefer to have recourse to
false physicians, and to seek from the creature what
the Creator alone can give us. But, like the woman
in the Gospel who had an issue of blood, we spend
the resources of our confidence, and our state is con
tinually aggravated: Erogwerat in medicos omnem
substantiam suam.
Ah, let us cease from this insane resistance which
occasions us so many evils, and gives so much pain to
our charitable Physician; let us give our confidence to
Him who deserves it, and do not let us inflict on Him
the shame of always preferring the creature to Him.
Fili, in tua infirmitate, ne despicias teipsum ; da locum
medico, etenim ilium Dominus creavit ; et non discedat
a te, quia opera ejus sunt necessaria. (Ecclus.)
The reparation would not be complete, if you did
170 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
not deplore the folly and the fury of those who are not
content with not having their mortal maladies attended
to by the divine Physician, but pursue Him with their
hatred, outrage Him, shower furious blows upon Him,
chase Him away from sick brethren, denying His skill
and the efficacy of His remedies, covering Him with
ridicule, and even hindering Him by violence from ap
proaching them. Saint Augustine has stigmatized
them by including them in the same anathema with
the executioners who crucified their Physician, come
down from heaven to cure them : Homines desperate
degrotabant, et ipsa cegritudine qua mentes perdider-
anty etiam medicum ccedebant, quin et occidebant.
But, always charitable, always good, taking little
account of His honor, or even of His life, dwelling
only upon triumphing over hatred by His love and by
His patience, He continues to pray for the men who
repel Him, and when they cruelly shed His blood, He
offers it for their salvation; He makes it flow down
upon their heads that it may melt their pride and
soften the hardness of their heart: llle autem, etiam
cum occideretur, medicuserat: vapulabat et curabat ;
patiebatur phrceneticum nee deserebat /Egrotum ;
bound, chained, struck at, mocked, crucified, profaned,
He remembers only one thing: that He is their
physician, and that He desires to cure them: Teneba-
tur, alligabatur, percutiebatur, irridebatur, suspende-
batur, et me diais erat!
Oh! how these prodigies of love, of devotedness, of
patience and of humanity, need to be understood, that
the gentle Physician, the victim of His charity, may
receive in the respect, the obedience, the fidelity, and
the eagerness of His children, the compensations
due to His dignity, the consolations desired by His
heart.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 171
IV. PRAYER.
Love to repeat, whilst appropriating them to your
selves, the prayers, the appeals, the redoubled suppli
cations, the cries of anguish and of suffering, which
the poor sick patients and the poor afflicted people
send up to the heavenly Physician to obtain their cure;
and remember, in order to sustain your confidence,
that they were always attended to, if not immediately,
at least later on, and more marvellously then, that they
might be consoled.
Say with the man who was born blind: "Lord,
make me to see!" With the two blind men of Jeri
cho, "Have pity on me, Jesus, son of David!" Cry
out with the Chanaan woman: " My daughter is tor
mented with the demon!" And again, "Lord, help
me, do not refuse me the crumbs on which the dogs
feed beneath their masters' tables!" With the pooi
father of the boy possessed by the devil, and who, go
ing down on his knees, exclaimed: " Lord, have pity
on my son, who is possessed by the evil spirit, who
afflicts him terribly!" With the ten lepers, who, as
soon as they perceived Him from afar, raised their
voices and cried out: "Jesus, good Master, have pity
on us! "
If pride, impatience, discouragement of shortsighted
friends, wish to dissuade you from continuing your
prayers, go on like the blind man of Jericho, crying
louder and more perseveringly! Let your prayer,
though it be ardent and earnest, be also humble, like
that of the centurion: "Lord, my son is paralyzed and
suffers horrible tortures. I am not worthy that Thou
shouldst enter into my house, speak only one word
and he will be cured."
Lastly, say with the Church, with the priest who
172 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
every day repeats it at the very moment when he com
municates, the beautiful prayer addressed to the all-
powerful Physician: " Let not the participation of Thy
Body and Blood, Lord Jesus Christ, which I, though
unworthy, presume to receive, tend to my judgment
and condemnation, but through Thy mercy may it be
a safeguard and remedy both of soul and body: " Per-
ceptio Corporis et Sanguinis tui, Domine Jesu Christe,
quod ego indignus sumere prcesumo, non mihi prov-
eniat ad judicium et condemnationem, sed pro tua pie-
tate prosit mihi ad tutamentum mentis et corporis et ad
medelam percipiendam.
Practice.
To speak of our pains, our wounds, and our ills to
the divine Physician of the tabernacle, and often to
receive the Communion under the form of a remedy.
XI. Jesus in the Sacrament is Our Companion.
I. ADORATION.
JESUS, whom I adore upon this altar, whom I meet
with hourly, who dwellest so near me, whom I find
wherever I go, whether in a town or in the country,
upon this continent or upon another; Jesus who came
to meet me in my first Communion at the moment
when, issuing out of the bonds of its ignorance, my
reason began to walk in the path of its liberty, and
whom, since then, I have always seen beside me: oh,
how true it is that Thou art, as Thou didst say by the
mouth of Thy prophets and as the doctors of Thy
Church teach, "my Companion."
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 173
I adore Thee by that name of kindness which makes
Thee descend to me and makes Thee in very truth my
equal! I adore Thee in the truth and the perfection
with which Thou dost manifest all the qualities, ac
complish all the offices, and render to us all the serv
ices of the devoted, reliable, indefatigable friend of
man here below.
Yes, Thou hast come to be with us, to accompany
us, to remain united to us and accessible to us every
where, always, however humble, obscure, difficult,
miry, terrible, or horrible may be our path.
We have to traverse life and time to reach heaven,
we are condemned to march, always to march with
out ever stopping. What a journey is before us, what
a road, what a dark valley is the valley of tears, what
heights to climb, what precipices to descend! what
snares to avoid, what enemies to repel! Yet no danger
signifies, since Thou art our companion along the road.
Thou hast raised Thy tunic, girded Thy loins, hard
ened Thy feet, taken Thy staff and Thou walkest with
us : Et ibat cum illis !
We are obliged to work, during a long and hard day,
which begins in the morning of our life and only termi
nates in the misty and cold evening of old age: what
insupportable heat over our head, what thorns and what
stones beneath our feet, what an ungrateful soil,
what hard labor! It matters not! Thou hast taken
upon Thyself our yoke, Thou dost share our labors,
Thou dost sweat and toil like us; labor of the hands,
fatigues of the apostolate, Thou laborest without relax
ation, and Thou dost warn us not to try to perform
any labor without Thee, for without Thee we can do
nothing, oh true Companion of our labor!
We are enrolled for the combat and our life is passed
on a field of battle— a desperate combat and without
174 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
truce, perfidious and merciless. It matters not! Thou
dost fight with us and dost share our trials, oh our
valiant Companion in war!
We are condemned to exile; our country is heaven.
The earth ought to be nothing but a paradise of grace,
a delightful avenue, leading to the paradise of glory;
our ingratitude and our pride have driven us from it
and have cast us into a strange land, ruled over by a
sanguinary and murderous prince named Satan, in the
midst of nations who hate us and who persecute us to
death. It matters not! Thou hast left Thy beautiful
home in heaven, the dwelling of Thy Father, aban
doned the legions of angels who raised Thee and
served Thee in the palace of Thy glorious royalty; and
Thou hast made Thyself the companion of our exile,
and Thou art, like us, hated, pursued, combatted;
Thou wert put to death, and cruel war is waged
against the tomb which conceals Thee, oh adorable
Exile!
Lastly, we are condemned to chains, cast into cap
tivity; we are prisoners; our crimes against the divine
majesty, and our immense debts towards His justice,
make of us insolvent captives, convicts for life! Our
jailors, who are devils and vices, sorrows, sufferings
and evils, are innumerable, and how hard, cruel, and
pitiless they are! They never cease tormenting us,
and they long to make us fall out of the prison of tem
poral sufferings into the hell of eternal punishments.
And Thou hast descended even to our prison, oh Son
of the King ! Our cruel chains, our ignominious bonds,
have imprisoned Thy arms, chained Thy feet, weighed
on Thy heart! Jesus, I adore Thee, oh Companion of
our captivity, our companion in chains, bound by the
same fetters, condemned to the same rule as our
selves!
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 175
II. THANKSGIVING.
Oh, how sweet it is to enjoy these truths before a
tabernacle, where, during nineteen centuries, Jesus
persevered in remaining with us, in sharing the fatigues
of our march, the sweats of our labor, the difficulties
of our combats, the bitternesses of our exile, the deso
lations and the ignominies of our captivity.
Each one of us, after all, has to bear all these evils,
to face all these fatigues, only for the few years during
which his life lasts: as soon as the journey of his life
is over — and is it ever very long ? — if he has been faith
ful, he enters into repose and receives his recompense;
his exile is over, his chains have fallen, and their traces
shine upon his members like so many glorious stig
mata!
But Jesus, our adorable Companion! His day fin
ishes only with the consummation of ages, at the last
evening of the world! Until then, like those devoted
men who for love of God offer to guide travellers
beyond the precipices, He presents Himself successively
to all the generations which commence the journey of
their life, in order to accompany them. He rises early
in the morning and He offers to share the labor of all
those who go in the dawn to bend over their furrows.
Whatever may be their dangers, He sustains His chil
dren in the midst of them and never abandons them.
He wanders with the exiles through all the desolate
regions of the world, goes everywhere, never retreats
from any climate, however dangerous it may be, from
any desert, however horrible, and He remains riveted,
crushed by chains, in the bonds of the inertia, the pow-
erlessness, the obscurity of the Host in the poor prison
of our tabernacles, despised, very often even soiled!
Oh love! Oh heroic devotion! Oh sublime generosity!
Enjoy, take delight in all the good things you re-
1 76 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
ceive from this incomparable Companion — the sweet
ness of His society; the charm of His condescension;
the right direction of your paths, security on your
journey; intrepid devotedness; the driving away of
enemies. And as foreseeing as He is devoted, He of
fers to all, to thirsty travellers, to weaned laborers, to
sorrowful exiles, to downcast prisoners, the inex
haustible provisions which He has prepared for them:
His flesh and His blood, a refreshing beverage, a forti
fying bread, a foretaste of our home, a pledge of de
liverance. Oh, what a kind, infinitely kind Companion
He is!
III. REPARATION.
Examine if your fidelity has corresponded with His;
if you have not often and traitorously left His com
panionship; if you have not preferred the society of
those who flattered you, but who, blind and egotis
tical, could only throw you together with themselves
into the ditch; if you have not too often resisted His
guidance; rejected His counsels; neglected His sugges
tions; if lastly you have not been a wretched, mis
erable, burdensome, and disgraceful companion to Him,
rendering His endeavors useless, His exile more bitter,
His captivity more sad!
Examine; make reparation; compassionate!
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for all the graces, all the virtues which are in
herent in fidelity, which assure it and manifest it until
the end, and be henceforth a faithful companion of
Jesus.
Ask Him, also, that you may understand His de-
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 177
signs, that you may explain to yourself His words, and
make sure of the means of your fidelity; ask Him for
a guide, a visible companion of your spiritual life,
prudent and devoted, one who is disinterested and
supernatural in all his ways.
Practice.
Accustom yourself to the society of Jesus by a daily
visit to the adorable Companion of the tabernacle.
XII. Jesus in the Sacrament is Our Host.
I. ADORATION.
" JESUS, our Host." Another sweet name, a name
of kindness which signifies love and condescension!—
the love of our King, who invites and receives us; the
condescension of our Saviour, who wills to be in
vited and received by us. The hospitality is at once
active and passive, and it is under this double aspect
that Jesus is our Host and ought to be looked upon,
saluted, adored, and loved.
Oh, how true all these titles of His goodness are!
What sweet and touching, what beneficent relations
they establish between Jesus and ourselves! Shall we
ever appreciate them to the extent of loving and treat
ing the Saviour of the Sacrament as all these names of
iove, of kindness, and benevolence invite us to do!
Adore Jesus, then, as your Host, who desires to re
ceive you and who invites you. Do you not hear Him
say, 1/enite ad me omnes : " Come ye all to Me " ? He
presses us, He insists; His invitations are commands.
His dwelling towers above ours, it is visible, always
open, always accessible, it is really the common home,
178 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
the home of all. And the Saviour remains there and
receives.
He receives you, that He may listen to you and hold
intercourse with you; and He hearkens to your desires,
your requests, your complaints.
He receives you at His table that He may feed you,
and His table is always laid, magnificently furnished,
served by angels; it is the feast of a King, the feast
of God, to which He invites you, not once, but every
day of your life!
Still more, He invites and engages you to enter, to
remain, and to make your dwelling in Himself, in His
heart: "Abide in Me." He desires that it should be
there that you should take your rest, during this life,
that you should take shelter, that you should enjoy all
the attentions, all the charms of the most exquisite, of
the most benevolent hospitality ! ' ' Abide in My love ! "
In what He has that is the richest, the most sacred,
and the best, His love and His heart— it is there that
He desires to receive us and lodge us: it is His guest
chamber!
And He promises that hereafter He will receive us
into the palace of His glory, that we shall enter into
His felicity, that we shall dwell forever in Him, with
out even a shadow between us, without any possible
separation; He invites us and summons us there. Oh,
what a good and magnificent Host, generous and be
nevolent in rendering happy, in overwhelming with
kindness those who accept His hospitality!
But, at the same time, He desires to be received by
us; and God became man, a poor traveller, a stranger
in this world, that He might give to His creature the
honor, the merits, and the joy of offering Him hospi
tality. Hospes eram, et collegistis me: "I was a
stranger, a traveller, a pilgrim without a dwelling, and
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 179
you gave Me hospitality," He will hereafter say to
those whom He will receive into His beautiful palace
because they had received Him beneath their roof.
When He was a child, Mary and Joseph gave Him hos
pitality at Nazareth ; when He had become a man, after
the fatigues of His apostolate He was received in the
house of Lazarus, where Martha and Mary loaded Him
with attentions and with love. Now, in the lowliness
of His Sacrament, He asks us for churches, for taber
nacles. Oh, He is not difficult to please! And if we
are poor, persecuted, He contents Himself with a
thatched roof or a garret!
But there is a dwelling which is dearer to Him than
all those and where above all He desires to be received;
it is the inner room, the chamber set apart, the sanc
tuary of the heart and of the soul: Manete in me et ego
in vobis: "Let Me abide in you!" Yes, in you, even
as I abide in My Father, loving and loved, living and
vivifying, happy and blessing! " Thou in Me, Father,
and I in them!" He prefers the most ignorant and
the poorest soul, if it be only pure and loving, to the
most sumptuous of temples,, to the basilica of marble
and of gold. His last object in quitting the sojourn of
His glory, in living in labor and dying in pains, was
thereby to merit and obtain the power of dwelling in
us, to enrich us, to honor us, and to deify us by re
maining in us!
Oh, adore this divine Guest, open to Him your heart;
do all in your power to receive Him aright, and treat
Him so well that He may never desire to leave you
any more.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Enjoy the charms and recall to mind all the good
things you find in the hospitality which Jesus offers
i8o The Human Titles of the Eticharist.
you. Melior est dies una in atriis tuis super
millia: a day with Thee, oh God of the tabernacle,
is better than a thousand in the most hospitable dwell
ing upon earth. Therefore the prophet was thrilled
with gladness when the possibility was put before
him of going into the house of the Lord: Lcctatus
sum in his quce dicta sunt mihi : in domum Domini
ibimus. "He called it the dwelling of his peace, he
longed to take his rest therein forever: " Hcec requies
mea in sceculum sceculi.
It is, in fact; because when we have Jesus with us
and are in Jesus, when we are guarded by Him, we are
insured against the attacks of the enemy; with Jesus,
and in Him, we enjoy the charm of the divine con
versation; with Jesus and in Jesus, we find our labors
directed, aided, rendered easy and fruitful; near Jesus,
and in Jesus, we possess a sanctified life, beatified in
as far as life can be here below.
But what shall we say of the blessings His visit
brings us when we receive Him; the grateful Guest
who so largely repays the hospitality which we offer
Him?
Like to the prophet Elias, who repaid by miracles the
hospitality of the widow of Sarephta; like to those holy
pilgrims whose temporary stay with charitable hosts
always left the luminous trace of some long desired
favor miraculously obtained by their guests— so when
Jesus comes, "all good things come to us with Him:"
Onmia bona -venerunt mihi pariter cum illo. He is
received into the house of Peter at Bethsaida, and He
cures the mother-in-law of the apostle of the burning
fever which keeps her confined to her bed. He goes
to Zacheus and "salvation comes to his house." He
is received at Bethany, and He restores the risen Laz
arus to his hosts, the sisters who were weeping over
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 181
him. And if we receive Him cordially, whether we
be rich or poor, if the dwelling of our soul be clean,
He will cure us, He will teach us, He will pacify us,
He will enrich us, He will bless us; and His ben
ediction is the warrant of all good things in time and
in eternity.
Happy then the soul which often receives Him and
which treats Him so well that it makes Him happy to
go back to it, there to take His rest and to enjoy the
delights of hospitality.
III. REPARATION.
Endeavor to understand the gravity of the fault com
mitted by those who refuse to be received by so great
and good a Host, and by those who refuse to receive
Him.
They first perpetrate an insupportable injury, an act
of contempt,, a real outrage. They reject the honor of
approaching a God, the joy of participating in infinite
felicity, the advances of a princely liberality; and
under what miserable pretexts, on account of what
stupid preferences! But the invitations of the Son of
God cannot return to Him in vain; if they are rejected,
they are changed into condemnations. "None of those
whom I invited were worthy, go and cast them into
the exterior darkness."
But, also, not to receive Him is hardness, a want of
mercy, a cruelty. He is there, at the door of our heart,
poor, hungry, thirsty, pursued by furious enemies, by
raging wolves. Listen to Him: Ecce sto et pulso !
"Open to Me, that I love as a sister, and from whom I
expect succor and affection, open to Me, for I have
passed the night outside and My hair is moist with the
cold dews of the morning:" Cincinni mei pleni sunt
1 82 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
rore noctium ! To repel a wanderer who supplicates
in so touching a manner, is it not barbarity ?
Alas! how many souls are nevertheless pitilessly
closed to Him ? How many, who formerly received
Him, reject Him now, adding still more to His sor
rows! How many receive Him because they are, so
to say, forced to do so, or who do so from ostentation,
but do not treat Him when once they have received
Him as He deserves to be treated. " He came to His
own and His own received Him not."
What they have done will be repaid to them, and
they will be obliged hereafter to hear from the mouth
which so humbly asked for hospitality the terrible
words: ''Go, ye cursed, I know ye not, for I was
without a home and you did not receive Me." Hospes
eram et non collegistis me !
IV. PRAYER.
Ask the divine Guest to forget your ignorance, your
negligence, your infidelities, and never to weary of
coming to you. Mane nobiscum Domine : " Lord re
main with us."
Ask Him, with the good thief, to be received into
His kingdom: Domine, memento mei cum -veneris in
regnum tuum !
Practice.
Never to fail to receive a visit from Jesus in the
Communion except for unavoidable reasons, and if
the privation be imposed upon us to look upon it as a
real misfortune.
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 183
XIII. Jesus in the Sacrament is our Servant.
I. ADORATION.
Ecce Servus meus: " Behold My Servant." In these
words of God the Father He proposes to us, in Jesus
Christ, another title to be adored, another form of His
love to be contemplated and blessed. " Servant, Slave."
These two words are synonymous in Latin, and the
word "servus" has much more of the second meaning
than of the first; and such the Son of God willed to be
in presence of His Father, such our Redeemer and
our King has willed to be before us.
"He debased Himself," says Saint Paul, He who
without usurpation could call Himself the equal of
God, "taking on Himself the form of a slave:" Formam
servi accipiens. And it sufficed Him to appear in the
condition of a slave with regard to God and to men,
to assume the state of human nature, in the conditions
to which the sin of Adam had reduced it. For from
that day man was no longer the son of the family,
the master in his Father's house, the heir of all His
possessions, conversing familiarly with Him, his soul
harmoniously subject to God, his body wholly subject
to his soul. He had been cast out from the home
soiled by his crime; God looked upon him thence
forth as nothing more than a rebellious slave, from
whom labor is expected without any recompense being
promised.
It is in these conditions that the Son of God came;
He became man, passible, mortal, exposed to all the
requirements, to all the chastisements of justice. And
He was born the slave of His Father, subject to, obedi
ent and dependent in His presence, as His slave cease
lessly delivering up His whole life and His whole be
ing to Him, to His absolute master.
184 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
He says, in order to show that the character of a
slave is really inherited in His person, that slavery is
His settled condition, " Father, Thou hast pierced My
ear:" Aurem perforasti mihi, because the ear pierced
and penetrated by a ring to which was fixed a cord, to
render the slaves obedient to the slightest signal, was
the sign of slavery amongst the Romans.
From infancy and up to thirty years of age He had
served in the workshop of an artisan, and His hands
were hardened through handling the tools, carrying
the wood, and accomplishing all the minor details in
the workshop of a carpenter: Manus ejus in cophino
servierunt.
After having served the ignorance and the wounds of
humanity by His words and His miracles, He was
afterwards beheld provided with an apron, His tunic
raised, His sleeves rolled up, pouring water into a
basin on His knees, before His masters, washing their
feet; and these His masters were ourselves, men, we
the worst of slaves, born of a servile race, fallen still
lower by means of the most degrading of servitude.
And He was then heard proclaiming that " The Son of
man had not come to be served, but to serve:" Venit
enim Filiiis hominis non ministrari sed ministrare.
The next moment He was serving His disciples at
table, He was consecrating Himself forever to the
service of humanity, but in what a marvellous manner!
It was not only His time which He gave up to us; His
words, His blessings, His devotedness, His sweat, His
merits and His profits: all these things He gave up to
us also. But more still! He adopted slavery as well
as becoming a slave; service as well as a servant. And
even as the slaves of antiquity became a kind of object
which was taken and delivered up at will, which was
used and abused without control, so Jesus, the Son of
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 185
God, the Son of the King, Uncreated Liberty, Eternal
Independence, made Himself an object, an object of
service, which He has delivered up into our hands, that
we may use it as we will! Accepit panem in manus et
ait : Accipite ex eo omnes.
Oh my soul, contemplate, admire, endeavor to under
stand; at least adore, be silent, and seek after nothing
ness in order to plunge thyself into it, for this marvel
of the King of glory become a slave is one well calcu
lated to confound and annihilate thee!
II. THANKSGIVING.
But as all the most incomprehensible marvels of
omnipotence are always lovingly performed, they are
full of harmony, of charm, of sweetness, even when
they appear to associate together the most contrary
elements, to do violence to the most firmly established
laws, and to come into collision with the most com
monly received ideas. It is thus that the incredible
abasement of Jesus in the service of man breathes so
much love, kindness, generosity, and condescension
that the soul which contemplates it is more touched
by gratitude than by a feeling of astonishment.
It is from love that He made Himself our slave in the
supreme act of His love: In finem dilexit. He asks us
to accept His service with love and gratitude. He
wishes to gain our souls, whilst serving them, because
He is enamoured of them, even as Jacob served Laban
to obtain the hand of Rachel. He desires to ennoble
our dependence in regard to God and towards our
neighbor, to raise it, to make a voluntary servitude of
it, animated by love and carried by generosity to the
extent of heroic devotedness. And this is why He
gives to His service in the Sacrament so many great
and amiable qualities, by which He desires to see us
1 86 The Human Titles of the Eucharist.
also characterized, and to elevate our service towards
God and towards our brethren.
Behold how faithful this amiable servant of the Host
is; always there, night and day, always vigilant,
always attentive, always ready; how eager He is;
hastening at the first summons, never making any re
sistance, never any delay; how respectful and humble,
making Himself so little and offering Himself with so
much jealousy, covered with so poor and humble a
garment, keeping a silence so full of deference; how
devoted He is, serving all kinds of masters: and they
are as numerous as the human race, the good and the
evil, the worthy and the unworthy, the kind and the
cruel — obeying all, delivered up to all, helping the good
in the task, praying for the bad and immolating Him
self to turn them away from the chastisements they
have deserved through their hardness and iniquity
towards Him; how good He is, gentle, benevolent,
patient, condescending, happy to serve us, saying to
us and making us feel in the bottom of the heart that
it is for Him a joy, a felicity, a delight to serve us and
to be our slave!
Oh too amiable servant of God and of men in the
Host, mayest Thou be understood, praised, and loved
even as Thou deservest to be!
III. REPARATION.
What heinousness is therefore attached to the spirit
of independence, of pride, of revolt against the orders
of God, and consequently what enormity of sin, which
is always an act of pride and disobedience, is in oppo
sition to the humble, constant, and heroic submission of
Jesus Christ! Non serviam: I will not obey, is the re
ply given to God with blasphemous pride by the crea
ture, who for his first punishment is subjected to
The Human Titles of the Eucharist. 187
the most shameful of yokes, to the most barbarous of
masters! Serous tuus sum ego: I am Thy servant;
Veni ut faciam voluntatem tuam : I am come, I re
main here, oh My Father, to serve Thy will, says the
humble servant of the tabernacle. What a contrast!
How the submission of Jesus falls back with all its
weight upon the pride of man, to render him more
perverse and to increase his punishment.
But also what a lesson, always repeated in eloquent
terms, clear, pressing, to serve our brethren, to devote
ourselves to them, to bear with them, is the example
of Jesus, the servant of all in the Sacrament.
Do you not see written on all the Hosts these unan
swerable words of the Saviour, "You call Me Master
and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If then I, be
ing your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you
also ought to wash one another's feet."
A subject of examination which is indeed impor
tant! A subject no doubt of very urgent reforms!
Examine, confess, offer reparation!
IV. PRAYER.
Make the resolution and ask for grace always to
serve with the greatest fidelity Christ the Saviour, who
has made Himself your servant in the Sacrament.
Make use of Him, certainly, but serve Him also, He
merits it, He expects it; render Him service for service,
serve Him as He serves you; at least keep your eyes
always fixed on Him that you may learn how we
serve when we truly love.
Practice.
Offer yourself every moment to your God, to your
Master in the Sacrament, to serve Him in all that you
may do and suffer during the day.
/IDotix>es of tbe JEucbarietic Bfcoration.
I. The Eucharist is God Himself Present under the
Veils of the Sacrament.
I. ADORATION.
THE Eucharist is God Himself, present in truth and
reality under the species of bread.
It is God present, not in an invisible and insensible
manner, as is the presence by which He is everywhere
in all things, penetrating all beings, and all space; no,
it is God present, personally, corporally, as He was in
Jesus Christ from the moment when the Word united
itself with the humanity of Jesus, and as He will be
always in His humanity, for He has united Himself
with it forever. The invisible Divinity, therefore,
made itself thus visible through the humanity of Jesus;
the impalpable has rendered itself accessible through
the flesh of Jesus; the immense, the immeasurable has
been limited, rendered present in a certain place, in a
definite space, in Jesus.
Now believe thoroughly, that this is the faith of the
Church; the Eucharist is nothing else than Jesus Him
self, really and totally present under a sign, the sign of
bread, and consequently it is God Himself present
there.
You do not, indeed, see the body of Jesus, but you
see the veil which covers Him, the sign which shows
His presence. When Jesus was upon the earth the
The Motives of the Eucharistie Adoration. 189
Divinity itself was not seen by the eyes of men,
but the Man in which it personally dwelt was seen
and God was adored in Jesus. We do not now see
with our eyes the humanity of Jesus, but as the
Church teaches that it is under the Sacramental sign,
we seek in the sign the sacred Host, and as soon as
we perceive it we adore it, because we have discov
ered and we know where Jesus positively is. The
Host is He! It is the one sole, true God, present to
our eyes.
Adore Him in mind, making acts of faith in the real
presence of your God; adore Him in heart, admiring
the marvellous love which found means for rendering
God present here below; adore Him in the will by
confessing yourself to be His creature, His subject, by
offering yourself to honor Him, body and soul, every
where and always in the Sacrament.
II. THANKSGIVING.
How good and pleasant is this sensible presence of
God! What blessings we receive from it! And what
thanksgivings we owe Him for it!
It is in our nature not to understand spiritual things,
excepting by means of the senses and under the cover
of sensible signs. If God did not render His presence
sensible by means of the sign of the Sacrament, we
should seek our God without ever finding Him, or else
if reason showed Him to us invisibly present every
where, our heart could not be content with a presence
which our eyes would not be able to define; or else,
like all idolatrous nations we should adore the ob
jects themselves, nature, creatures, our own passions,
deceiving ourselves as to the object, and adoring the
works, which are but reflections of the Creator, in
place of the Creator Himself.
190 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
But then what consolations could we find for our
hearts, what lights to guide us, what support in our
needs ?
No, our God is there! Raise your eyes, behold the
sacred Host, and without having any fear of being
deceived as to the object, have recourse to it, pray to
it: it is your God. Ah! you need no longer seek Him
in your necessities; you need no longer call upon Him
in vain in your distress. He has said to you: " I am
there, and 1 will console thee; thou shalt speak to Me
and I will listen to thee; Israel, thou art not a people
who have no God."
Make acts of thanksgiving; with your mind, by con
sidering how good this presence of your God is for
you; with your heart, letting it be melted and touched
by the familiar presence of your God; in your will,
offering in return always to love, in the Host, the God
who renders Himself present therein only through love
for you.
III. REPARATION.
The sensible and amiable presence which the good
God offers us of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament
ought, we should imagine, to touch men to such an
extent that, on the one side, it would be impossible
for them any longer to forget or offend God, and that,
on the other side, the mere sight of the Host would
move them into profound reverence.
Alas! spite of all, although God pursues man, and
presses Himself on him, so to say, by a presence
which man cannot avoid, he nevertheless forgets God,
lives far from Him, without Him, without desiring to
have recourse to Him, or to pray to Him, or honor
Him, or obey Him!
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 191
Much more than this, the Eucharistic presence itself,
so holy, so august, so imposing, is neglected and is
despised; and very often even in churches, under His
eyes, in presence of the sacred Host, man behaves as
though God were not there, as though the Blessed
Sacrament were not God Himself!
Ah! the Council of Trent had good reason to foresee
how we should treat the sacred Host and to say, after
having recalled to mind that the Eucharist is the true
God, that "He must not be the less adored because
He has placed Himself under the sign of bread, there
to become our nourishment, for He is indeed the same
whom the angels adored at His coming into the world
and the Magi in His crib! "
Who is there that believes it sufficiently and does
not sorrowfully exclaim, after examining himself in
regard to his relations with the Blessed Sacrament:
"God is really there and I knew it not."
Let us make reparation by acts of the mind, consider
ing the evil, the great evil of such conduct; by acts of
the heart, forming acts of contrition flowing from love
and from compassion for the God disowned in the
Sacrament; by acts of the will, carefully examining
our conduct in regard to this matter and making
suitable resolutions for reforming it.
IV. PRAYER.
Henceforth we shall know where to find our God in
order to pray to Him, and we shall pray to Him with
confidence in all our needs. For it is evidently to help
us in the duty of prayer, to render prayer more easy
and more confiding, that God has drawn near to us,
and has made Himself a Sacrament. We need no
longer seek Him here or there, we can go straight to
192 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
the tabernacle, and we shall there directly call upon
the Author of all good gifts. Would it be possible for
Him to have made such advances, to have rendered
His presence so acceptable, so near at hand, if it were
not the better to listen to us, to grant our prayers more
quickly and more abundantly ? Let us then go to
Him always, in every circumstance; let the Saints and
Joseph and Mary introduce us before His throne, and
let all our prayers be ended under His eyes, in His
presence, at the foot of His altar.
Pray, make supplications with the mind, convincing
yourself of the truth that God is there, that He may
be prayed to; with the heart, exciting yourself to confi
dence through the sight of the ineffable love which
keeps Him so lovingly upon the altar; with the will,
by making the resolution of henceforth always pray
ing before the tabernacle, and also of always show
ing reverence to the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Practice.
Faith in the real presence, manifested by prayers
offered in the presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament
and respect in church.
II. The Eucharist is the Real Humanity of Our Lord
Jesus Christ.
I. ADORATION.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is at once God and man.
The humanity which the Word, the second Person of
the Blessed Trinity, took in Mary, where the Holy
Ghost had formed it with the most pure blood of the
Immaculate Virgin: this humanity composed, like ours,
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 193
of a soul, a body, blood, nerves and bones, was united
to the Divinity in so close and perfect a union, that all
the grandeurs, all the perfections, all the prerogatives
of the Divinity itself were communicated to it fully,
without measure, and forever.
Hence the result that, without having ceased to be
a humanity created out of nothingness, and like to
ours in its nature, the humanity of Jesus merits never
theless to receive the same homage as God Himself.
This is easy to understand, seeing that the Word of
God has united Himself with it to the extent of making
His own of it, and of its becoming His own person
ality.
Moreover this is why Jesus as a child, Jesus work
ing, Jesus as an artisan, as well as Jesus condemned
and crucified, has merited and deserved the adoration
which is due to God alone. The Magi prostrated
themselves before Him, the man who was born blind
adored Him, the disciples and the angels worshipped
Him.
Well then does the Church say and proclaim it: the
Eucharist is the body, the soul, the blood of Jesus,
that is to say, the humanity of the Saviour, invisibly
yet really present under the species. Therefore we
ought to adore the Blessed Sacrament, and beneath its
veils Jesus Himself; we ought to adore Him and to
believe that we owe to Him the same supreme adora
tion that we owe to God Himself.
Now to adore Jesus is to recognize with the mind
the infinite excellence of Jesus, our nothingness; it is
to love Jesus with the heart more than all and more
than ourselves, as our last end and our supreme happi
ness; it is to submit with the will and to give our
selves to His will, to His rights, to His desires in
regard to us.
194 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Let us make these acts, let us offer this triple homage
to the Most Blessed Sacrament; seeing that it is Jesus
Himself.
II. THANKSGIVING.
The greatest blessing for which we are indebted to
the Most Holy Sacrament is, that it renders present to
men of all times and of all countries, the holy hu
manity of Jesus, Jesus living, Jesus always man like
us, with His human soul, His human body, His human
heart, His human feelings, His affections and His suf
ferings.
What was the greatest misfortune to which the
world was subject before the Word became man by
the Incarnation ? It was to be separated from God, to
be subjected to the just anger of God, to be the un
grateful and rebellious child of God. But by the Word
becoming man, peace was concluded, God comes to
us, we possess Him and we live with Him.
Well, then, it is this blessing of the presence, of the
goodness of God, which the Most Holy Sacrament
brings to us nineteen centuries after the Incarnation.
Beneath its veils we have, we possess Jesus, that is
to say, God Himself, God made man for us; and we
possess Him as really as did Mary and the Apostles.
It is true that we do not behold His human features,
and from that point of view we are less happy. But
we feed on Him, we touch Him with our lips when re
ceiving Him, we feel Him descending into our bosom,
we press Him to our heart; is not all this a magnifi
cent compensation?
Render, therefore, thanks to Jesus for the blessing
of His presence in the Eucharist; with the mind, by
recalling to memory all that you have read respecting
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 195
the greatness of the blessing of the presence of Jesus;
with the heart, by being touched with the sweet and
intimate reality of His presence; with the will, by
offering yourself in order to profit by His presence,
and to increase His love in you.
III. REPARATION.
If Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament be truly the
Man-God, it is evident that He desires to be treated
therein with all the consideration due to the onlv Son
of God.
Now, let us closely examine the ordinary behavior
of Christians towards Jesus in the Eucharist; do those
who forget Him year after year, without testifying the
least love for Him in His Sacrament, treat Him as man,
as having a heart ?
And those who offend Him, do they think noth
ing of His blood shed with so much suffering on
the cross, and such profound humiliation upon the
altar ?
And sacrilegious men and profane men— how do
they treat the living God-man when they tread the
Hosts under foot, or receive the communion into a
soul where Satan, death and corruption reign ?
And we ourselves, have we for this Jesus so truly
man, so sensitive, so loving, so desirous of our love
that He joyfully accepts all kinds of sacrifices that He
may obtain it: have we, for His real and living pres
ence, the respect, the tenderness, the attention which
we render to our equals from mere motives of polite
ness ?
No, alas! let us confess it with grief; Jesus is less
present to us, less living, than the stranger we elbow
in the street without paying any attention to him.
196 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
But He conceals Himself in the Sacrament, will you
say ? That is only another reason for respecting His
weakness, imposed upon Him by the love He has
for us.
Make reparation. Ponder, in all their reality, your
forgetfulness and your rudeness with regard to the
Man-God living in the Host. Detest with your heart
the faults which He sorrows over, seeing that He is
there only to make Himself understood and loved.
Form your will to be respectful and tender towards
Jesus.
IV. PRAYER.
The Word of God became man that He might be
able to pray in the name of humanity, which, after sin
entered into the world, could not make its desires as
cend to God with any certainty of their being granted.
He became man also in order to excite, by means of
His goodness and His blessings, confidence in the
heart of guilty man, mistrustful because of his un-
worthiness.
Since the Incarnation God listens to the prayers of
man because of His Son; therefore also man since
then prays without hesitation and trusts in the power
of God to grant his desires.
The Eucharist continues these two graces so neces
sary to prayer. Jesus prays in all the tabernacles in
the' name of guilty humanity. There He shows Him
self to be easy of approach, making most merciful ad
vances ; lastly, giving Himself, He says to all those
who have need of succor from on high, " Pray in My
name; have confidence; all that you shall ask in My
name, you shall receive, that your joy may be full."
Let us pray, then, before the Eucharist, at the foot of
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 197
the Eucharistic throne. Our prayers will be sanctified
by their union with those of Jesus; they will be more
powerful and more consoling, because we offer them
before the eyes of Him who wept, near the heart of
Him who was touched by all our sufferings and all
our infirmities.
Practice.
Always salute the Blessed Sacrament as being Jesus
living in person.
III. The Eucharist is Our Lord Crowned King of
Glory in Heaven.
I. ADORATION.
IT is a truth of faith that Christ enclosed in the
bread of the Sacrament is absolutely and personally
the same as the triumphant Christ reigning in heaven.
Jesus ascended to heaven by right of conquest; He
is seated upon the throne of God the Father, sur
rounded by all the angelic hierarchies. He reigns there
as supreme Master. It is His humanity, so often hu
miliated and so maltreated upon earth, which is
crowned in heaven with glory, surrounded with light
more dazzling than that of the sun ; it is the Christ,
formerly blasphemed and insulted, who listens to
praises, canticles, and ceaseless acclamations; who
sees the angels and saints prostrating themselves and
casting their crowns at His feet, in sign of supreme
hojnage.
Well! if the crowned Christ resides indeed in the
Sacrament, He has the same rights to reign there,
there to be obeyed, adored, honored, and praised.
198 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Give utterance then, whilst prostrating your mind,
your heart, and your will at His feet to adore Him in
the Sacrament, give utterance to the praises to which
He listens uninterruptedly in heaven: "The Lamb that
was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and bene
diction," forever and ever. Amen.
II. THANKSGIVING.
With all the powers of your soul give thanks to the
glorious King of heaven, for having willed to make
Himself the gentle and sweet King of the earth in the
Sacrament.
It is indeed through sheer goodness that the Son of
God, who accomplished His task here below by living
and dying in the service of God and for the salvation
of souls, has returned anew to remain on the earth, in
the Eucharist, until the end of time.
And in order not to alarm us, knowing that the eye
of man could not bear to see the too dazzling light of
glory, or the ear of man have strength to listen to the
heavenly canticles, the King of heaven envelops the
brightness of His face, the fire of His eyes, the radi
ance of His whole person in the sweet cloud of the
Sacrament. His presence brings us nearer to heaven,
it makes our exile resemble, in some small degree, the
celestial country, and unites the Church militant to the
Church triumphant.
By its means we are no longer distracted between
the regret of not having seen Jesus upon earth and
the uncertainty of not seeing Him in heaven ; .we
have the Treasure, the Master, the King of our country
with us.
Render thanks to Him in the Sacrament, and join
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 199
your thanksgivings to those which the angels and the
saints render Him in heaven.
III. REPARATION.
Men commit a great and universal sin against this
merciful return of the King of heaven to earth.
Taking advantage of His having adopted a mode of
being which is simple, modest, humble, and abased,
they despise and make no account of His presence or
the sacrifices which it costs Him. He comes to be
obeyed upon earth as He is in heaven; men live out
side His law. He comes to receive on earth the praise
and adoration due to Him after the humiliation of His
Passion; He is humiliated, and insulted in the Sacra
ment to a still greater degree than in the Pretorium.
He comes that He may be honored, praised, exalted,
and He is forgotten and left in contemptuous isolation,
in shameful neglect.
Oh how barbarous is this want of understanding,
how monstrous is this ingratitude! Make reparation;
ask your own heart whether you have always treated
the humble Host as being the King of heaven and of
earth, and the Prince of glory.
IV. PRAYER.
Pray that Jesus may reign upon earth in the Sacra
ment, even as He reigns in heaven in glory.
Since His ascension He must needs reign, it is His
right; the Church exists only for the purpose of estab
lishing, defending and extending His reign. And how
can He reign upon earth, except by the Sacrament, the
sole means of His presence and of His dwelling here
below ?
200 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
He reigns in our hearts when He is sufficiently often
and sufficiently well received there to become the
principle and the centre of life, of virtues, of labor, of
sufferings and of joys. Pray then for the interior reign
of Jesus in souls through frequent communion.
He reigns in exterior glory when He appears upon
the throne of the altar in the pomp of a solemn expo
sition, and in the triumph of processions. Pray then
for the public and glorious reign of Jesus, and always
honor Him with a worship as generous as it ought to
be reverent.
practice.
Honor by a genuflection on entering and leaving the
church, the presence of the King of heaven in the
IV. The Eucharist is the Most Excellent Gift that
God could possibly give Us here Below.
I. ADORATION.
THE Most Blessed Sacrament is the most excellent
gift that it is possible for God to bestow on us here
below, the most advantageous, the most useful, the
most profitable of blessings.
Endeavor thoroughly to understand this truth, that
you may better praise, admire and adore the sweet
Sacrament which is before your eyes.
What does the Eucharist contain? Divine grace?
Yes, but grace in its plenitude, in all its strength, be
cause it gives, together with grace, the very Author of
all grace.
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 201
What does the Eucharist contain ? The remembrance
of the life and the virtues of Jesus ? Yes, but even more
than the remembrance, for it is the continuation of each
one of His virtues as a child, an artisan, an apostle; is
He not there, gentle, submissive, humble, obedient,
devoted, patient always ?
What more does the Eucharist contain? The re
membrance of the Passion of Jesus? Yes, but so
lively a remembrance that it is the real reproduction
of His Passion and His death, continuing every day,
upon all altars: the sacrifice of redemption whereby
divine Justice was satisfied and the world pardoned.
But even more than this, the Eucharist is the assur
ance, the pledge, the foretaste and the first-fruits of
the happiness of heaven, for it contains and gives
Jesus, who is the beatitude of the elect!
Adore then the riches, the grandeur, the admirable
abundance of this divine gift.
II. THANKSGIVING.
If the grandeur of the gift of the Eucharist merits
our adoration, the bountifulness with which God be
stows it calls for our thanksgiving.
In fact it is through pure loving kindness that Jesus
remains in the Blessed Sacrament and gives Himself
there to us. Nothing obliges Him to make this gift;
what have we a right to expect from God ? Nothing
in us is capable of attracting Him to us— what is there
of good in us which could possibly attract God to us ?
In addition, there is no advantage He can possibly
derive from this bountiful gift of Himself: on the
contrary He is subjected to humiliation, ingratitude,
contempt, insult, sacrilege.
Yet in spite of all this He gives Himself, He delivers
202 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Himself up; He prostrates Himself, so to speak, be
fore the feet of man, He puts Himself into his hands;
He urges him, He solicits him, He is patient with him,
He is never weary of waiting for him. He offers
Himself to him not on such or such a day, for such
or such a special need — but to be a help to him in all
circumstances ! He converts Himself into food — super
natural food, symbolized to us in past ages by the
wonderful manna in the desert; in an infinite manner
to meet the wants of man, He is in turn unceasingly,
according to the need of every moment, Light,
Strength, Food, Repose, Consolation! And this foun
tain of graces never ceases to flow; and this centre of
light is never extinguished; and this Host loves con
stantly and gives itself always.
Oh love, who shall understand Thee enough to bless
Thee and love Thee as Thou deservest ?
III. REPARATION.
If every benefit calls for gratitude on the part of the
one benefited, or at least for recognition of the favor
bestowed: if ingratitude, even with regard to the least
among our benefactors, is a crime which conscience
cries out against, and the world considers dishonor
able: my God, my God, what must be thought of the
manner in which we receive the best of Thy gifts ?
How can we sufficiently deplore, how can we succeed
in making reparation for the ingratitude with which
man responds to the love of Thy Eucharist ?
Some, and they are numerous, completely ignore
this gift and this love; if we speak of it to them, they
insult it by mockeries and blasphemies. Others, who
know what the Eucharist is, refuse to render it love
for love, refuse to make frequent use of this gift, re-
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 203
fuse to utilize its riches in order to sanctify themselves
by its virtues, refuse to do it honor. And 1 ? Can I
say that 1 have made this Seed of life bring forth one
hundred, sixty or even ten fold ? Do I not, on the con
trary, deserve the condemnation pronounced on the
selfish and idle servant who buried and rendered use
less the talent which his master had entrusted to him
to put to profit ?
Let us examine ourselves seriously and let us see if
our gratitude be equal to the ineffable benefit, the un
speakable gift of the Eucharist. This examination
will, no doubt, show us the necessity of asking for
giveness and of making reparation.
IV. PRAYER.
The gift of the Eucharist is gratuitous, as we have
seen, absolutely gratuitous; that is to say, we have no
right to it, and in order to show our reverence for it,
it is necessary to ask for it, to implore it, to obtain the
increase and continuation of this gift by means of
prayer and supplication.
Let us say then, with the disciples of Emmaus,
"Remain with us, Lord, for it is late!" Remain in
Thy Eucharist! Preserve faith in me, preserve love in
me, preserve in me recourse to Thy Eucharist!
May 1 receive this gift that 1 may live, avoid evil, do
good.
May I receive it now, and above all at the hour of
my death, that my life may end well, that I may
escape hell and obtain paradise.
May I receive it to-day and always through the
merits, the intercession and the generosity of her who
gave it to the earth, Mary Thy Mother, O Christ of the
Host, and my beloved Mother!
204 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Practice.
Address daily to the Immaculate Virgin a prayer
with the special intention of obtaining preservation of
faith in the Eucharist.
V. The Eucharist is the Source of all Blessings
to the Christian.
I. ADORATION.
"Now all good things came to me together with
Wisdom," says the Wise Man. We ought to say as
much of the Eucharist, for it is wisdom itself. All
good things: the presence and the goodness of God;
the Incarnation, the Redemption, the Church, the
Sacraments; all the gifts, all the graces for our salva
tion, all come to us with the Eucharist, and on account
of it and by means of it.
Is it not in the Sacrament that God resides corpor
ally upon the earth which He protects, amongst us
whom He treats as beloved children ?
Is it not by the Sacrament that the Incarnate Word,
the Saviour Jesus, continues His life here below; per
petuating throughout the ages the example of His
virtues and the tenderness of His loving heart ?
Is it not by the sacrifice of the Eucharist that the re
demption of Calvary is continued for the whole world,
and the blood of the sweet Victim shed anew every
day ?
Therefore, without the Eucharist there would be no
God present here below; no Saviour with us, no Re
deemer with us!
For it is also the source of all the Sacraments — the
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 205
source from which these sacred channels of grace are
filled with their several virtues in order to be after
wards bestowed on those who receive them. It is the
Eucharist which gives us holy Church by ceaselessly
purifying it; the Church which is one, which unites all
her children in one sole body in Jesus; the Church
which is catholic or universal, which bestows upon
her ministers the sacred fire of apostolic zeal. It is the
Eucharist which unites us to the saints in heaven and
enables us to enjoy the benefits of their intercession.
It is the Eucharist which enables us to understand, to
love the Blessed Virgin Mary and to pray to her as we
ought; for Christ hidden by the veils is her own be
loved Son ; the blood of the sacrifice is His ; His silence,
His prayers, His abjection in the Sacrament are the
most precious of the treasures of which Mary disposes
in our favor; she obtains everything, but it is in His
name and by His merits.
Oh thrice adorable Sacrament ! I believe, I see, I
confess that I have all in Thee, that all comes to me by
Thee ! Be my all forever !
II. THANKSGIVING.
In order to awake in our souls the sentiments of
gratitude which the gift of the Eucharist ought to ex
cite in us, we must consider well our ordinary, every
day life, and ponder over the numerous blessings and
favors of which it has been the source for each one
of us.
Now, we shall see that all the blessings of our indi
vidual life have come to us from the Eucharist as truly
as those great blessings by which the whole Church
lives.
It was in contemplation of the Eucharist, and that
206 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
we might have the right to partake of the great ban
quet at the table of the Father of the human family
that we received holy baptism.
It was to make us truly love and reverence the
Eucharist, which we received in our first communion,
that our parents and Christian instructors taught us
with such affection and holy zeal.
It is in order to approach the Sacrament of life that
we have courage to conquer human respect, and all
the other obstacles which render confession of our
faults so difficult.
It is holy communion which enables us to live in a
Christian manner, to resist evil, to accept trials; it is
to it that we owe peace of soul, the joy of a good
conscience. It is upon it that we found the hope of
final perseverance, of a good death, and of our entrance
into heaven!
Thus our whole life is fed, sustained and spiritual
ized by the Eucharist. If we were to cease to commu
nicate, all these blessings of such great price would be
lost to us.
Oh too charitable, too beneficent Sacrament, my
dearest treasure, pledge of my salvation, how can I
ever pay the debt I owe Thee, except by loving Thee
always more and more and by having recourse to Thee
without ceasing?
III. REPARATION.
The Eucharist being the epitome of all the benefits
of God, the fountain head of all His love, the centre of
all His graces, the principal source of all good things
which come to us in the order of salvation, how is it
that we disown it, disregard it, that it is so little appre
ciated and so seldom received by Christians ?
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 207
How is it that it is not more esteemed, honored,
prayed to, adored ? How is it that we do not, with
hearty thanksgiving, offer to it all the gifts, all the fa
vors which we receive from the liberality of God ? It
is only just that he who gives generously should be
thanked generously; that he who performs unselfish
actions should be praised and honored ; how is it,
then, that the Sacrament of all good receives so little
generous love, so little genuine praise and honor from
us ? This is the lamentable ingratitude, the shameful
conduct which so cruelly outrages Our Saviour in the
Blessed Sacrament.
Let us deplore this, let us sigh over this; let us not
leave this temple before we have convinced ourselves
of the enormous disproportion which exists between
the devotion we owe the Eucharist, and the devotion
we give to it.
IV. PRAYER.
Let us earnestly ask for the grace of understanding,
of realizing that all the gifts of salvation bestowed
upon us, upon our families, upon the whole world,
are contained in the Eucharist: omnia in ipso ; that
they are granted to us by means of the Eucharist: per
ipsum ; and that consequently our only hope lies in
uniting with the Eucharist, in attaching ourselves to it
by the ties of faith, of prayer, of worship, of commun
ion: cum ipso. What other hope is there for us, for
the world, seeing that it is Jesus in reality, Jesus Him
self ?
Let us then honor the Eucharist, by praying to it
with humility and receiving it reverently. Let us put
our trust in it always, let us refer our every action to
it, in all our needs let us pray in its name. It is the
208 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
pledge through which we shall obtain everything we
ask with confidence, for Truth itself has said, "He
that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him
self up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him,
given us all things ?" Of what are these words more
true than of the Blessed Sacrament ?
Practice.
Let us offer our prayers as often as is possible in the
presence of the Blessed Sacrament, addressing them
to the Saviour hidden behind the Eucharistic veils.
VI. The Eucharist is the Living Memorial of the
Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I. ADORATION.
IF the Eucharistic sacrifice was instituted to perpet
uate on earth the memory of the Passion of Jesus
Christ and to apply the fruits of it to us, is it not just
that we should offer it our homage and our love, in
compensation and as reparation for all the sufferings
and all the humiliations which He endured in His
Passion ?
Now, in instituting His Sacrament, the Saviour said,
1 'Do this in memory of Me, who am about to be de
livered up for the remission of your sins." Saint Paul
adds: "Every time that you consecrate the Eucharist
you show the death of the Saviour," and holy Church
teaches her children that holy Mass is a true sacrifice,
the same as that of the cross, offering to God the same
Victim.
What then, does the Saviour desire in thus perpet
uating the memory of His Passion ? He desires that
we should not forget the love which He bore us to
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 209
the extent of dying upon a cross to redeem us; He
desires that we should henceforth honor Him in the
same proportion as He was outraged and dishonored.
He also desires to receive here below, on this same
earth where He suffered, the honor, the love, the
adoration to which He has a right, and which are given
to Him in heaven.
It is a duty which is strictly imposed on us. It is
requisite that canticles of glory should ascend to Him
in order to make reparation for blasphemies and inju
ries; eternal hosannas for cries of death; homage for
outrages; adoration for derision; it is requisite that
the flesh wounded by blows, soiled by spittle, branded
with suffering, should have tender and assiduous at
tentions lavished upon it: it is requisite that the heart
which was betrayed and forsaken, which endured the
agony of abandonment, should find in return, love and
fidelity on our part; lastly, it is requisite that the Man-
God should receive from the whole world for which
He has suffered, some return for His Passion and His
death. Is not all this just and right ?
Let us confess that it is; and since it is only in
the Blessed Sacrament that we can find the Man-God
here below, let us press around Him and render to
Him, behind the sacramental veil, all that we owe Him
in return for His Passion.
II. THANKSGIVING.
We ought to be very grateful to our adorable Sav
iour in that He permits us, through the Blessed Sacra
ment, to repay Him for the obligations laid upon us by
His Passion.
Is it not an immense satisfaction to be able to repay
the debt we owe a benefactor ? Do not benefits con-
2io The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
ferred weigh upon your heart, and until you are able to
pay your debts are you not discontented and ill at ease ?
What do you not owe to this incomparable Benefactor,
who from pure love, without any claim on your part,
and only to save you from death and obtain for you
life, eternal life, gave Himself up to so much suffering ?
Go then to the Blessed Sacrament, and by your love
and your homage, pay your debt; it is the only return
which He asks.
But, in addition, it is a great consolation and a dis
tinguished honor to be able to occupy the place of
Veronica who wiped the adorable face of the Saviour;
of Simon who shared the burden of His too heavy
cross; of the holy women who honored His sufferings
with their sympathy and their tears; of Mary, His des
olate Mother, who, in spite of her inexpressible grief,
did not leave the Saviour for a single moment, offering
Him the abundant reparation of her love and of her
tears.
Enjoy this consolation ; render this homage, give
yourself this satisfaction by lavishing your grateful
love on the Sacrament of the Passion of Jesus!
III. REPARATION.
Instead of hastening to the Sacrament which Jesus
instituted that His Passion might be honored and
loved, what do we too often see? Alas! in the Sac
rament itself injuries are again inflicted, ignominies are
again renewed.
Yes, it is betrayed and it is sold to Satan by sacri
legious communions, even as Judas sold Our Lord to
the Jews; it is shamefully abandoned through human
respect, even as the Apostles abandoned Our Lord
through fear. There are some, such as the impious
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 211
and atheists, who mock at the mystery of His
presence as being a ridiculous fable, who outrage the
veracity of the Saviour by denying what He affirms.
Alas! others go still further; there are profane wretches
who seize the holy Hosts that they may tread them
under foot and subject them to a thousand horrible
kinds of treatment.
It is therefore the Passion renewed by hatred. Alas!
for those abandoned wretches who crucify the Saviour
anew, whilst He would wish to have His Passion a
memory of His love, a sacred and an honored memo
rial for the life and the salvation of His children!
Oh! for mercy's sake draw near to the Blessed Sac
rament; compassionate Jesus who is so maltreated;
make reparation for the crime of those who transform
the Calvary of His love, where He comes to seek com
pensation for His former sorrows, into a Calvary of
ignominy which renews them and adds to them.
IV. PRAYER.
Let us earnestly ask for grace thoroughly to know,
practically and from the bottom of our heart, that the
Eucharist is the same Jesus, true God and true man,
who formerly suffered His Passion and death; then
implore Him that you may be touched with love and
compassion for Him, that you may repay, by your
adoration, your communions and your fidelity to His
laws, something of what you owe to Him for His suf-
erings.
Ask this grace through Mary, repeating those words
of the Stabat Mater, "Fountain of inexhaustible love,
oh my Mother, make me feel His pains, let me weep
with thee! Make my heart burn with the love of
Christ, my God, that I may please Him! Oh Virgin
212 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
of virgins, be not deaf to my prayer, let me weep with
thee! Make me share His Passion, participate in His
death, live by love in His wounds! May His wounds
wound me, may His cross and His blood inebriate me,
the blood of thy Son!"
Practice.
Make a genuflection by bending your knee to the
ground when you pass before the Blessed Sacrament,
in order to atone for the outrages offered to Jesus in
His Passion.
VII. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
makes Reparation for the Blasphemies ut
tered against Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I. ADORATION.
BLASPHEMERS outrage the majesty of God by refusing
to acknowledge that there is a God, the Master of all
things, by despising Him whom faith teaches us is
our God; and as God became man, and appeared and
lived upon earth in the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
it is against Our Lord Jesus Christ that they bring to
bear the outrages and the fury of their blasphemies.
They deny that He is God; they mock at the won
derful miracle of His virginal birth; they treat as a fable
the history of His life; they absolutely reject His au
thority and that of the Church which He founded for
the purpose of transmitting His will to future centuries.
The Sacraments established by Him, all the religious
worship of which He set us an example, they treat as
ridiculous affectations. In their opinion God is noth-
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 213
ing but an obsolete word, devoid of meaning: Jesus
Christ was nothing more than a man afflicted with
hallucinations; revelation is a fable, the Church a busi
ness enterprise which encroaches upon the rights of
man. All this is said, written, published, taught, re
duced to a system; it is the language current amongst
a multitude of men ; books are written every day to
prove it, a thousand newspapers repeat it in all kinds
of ways, and bring it to the knowledge of whole pop
ulations.
Ah! it is an ocean of blasphemy which inundates
the world with its muddy waters! It might be said
that all the devils have issued from the infernal abyss,
that they might vomit upon earth the horrible blas
phemies with which hell resounds.
So, for this reason, injury calls for praise; hatred for
love; insult for respect ; blasphemy for adoration.
Adore, with the most profound respect, therefore, the
Blessed Sacrament where Christ, God and man in one,
lives and resides. Prostrate yourselves and acknowl
edge, with all the faith and love of which you are
capable, that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one sole and
only God, thrice holy, Creator of heaven and earth ; that
as such, He is the beginning and the end of all things;
that here below, and in heaven, men and angels, kings
and peoples are dependent upon Him, ought to be sub
ject to Him, and to honor Him by obedience rendered
to all His laws, respect offered to His presence, to His
person, to His word, to His ministers and to all that
represents Him. Adore Him as the perfect man,
united indissolubly to the Son of God, having received
and possessing in plenitude all perfections, all qualities,
all virtues.
Prolong, multiply, these acts of faith and of love;
address them directly to the Sacred Host, which is
214 The Mo fives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Jesus Himself: surround it with your praise, in order,
if it is possible that the horror of these blasphemies
may not reach Him.
II. THANKSGIVING.
In presence of these outrages, which we can easily
picture to ourselves as being so numerous and so
frequently repeated, and which faith enables us to
understand are so offensive to the majesty of so good
a God, the heart is oppressed and seized with anguish;
it cannot be solaced unless it be able by some means or
other to mitigate the horror of the blasphemy, to
wash away, efface this injury.
Now these means exist; they are within the reach
of all, and they consist in the adoration of the Most
Blessed Sacrament.
As good works, in the sight of God, atone by
their merit for the unworthiness of bad works, praise
will therefore be a compensation which He will accept
for blasphemy; respect will compensate for contempt;
a humble and lively faith for the unbelief which
denies and which mocks ; love for hatred. Now
adoration, properly understood, is nothing less than
the union of all these holy things. We adore that we
may acknowledge the perfections of the divine Being
present in Jesus Christ, the supreme dominion of God
possessed by Jesus Christ; we adore in order to ac
knowledge with joy and gratitude that God, by Jesus
Christ, is the infinitely liberal Author of all the gifts
which creatures receive; we adore in order to com
passionate and console the heart of Jesus, made sor
rowful by the sins of His children redeemed by His
blood; to honor His presence by wishing to be with
Him often: is all this anything else except the exercise
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 215
of praise, of honor, of faith, of love, and of all holy
works which are the contrary of blasphemy ?
And in coming to offer this homage directly to Jesus
Christ, in the place where He resides, our adoration has
greater efficacy: it reaches Him in a more immediate
manner; it is the fruit of sacrifices, often costly, which
it has been necessary to make in order to leave all and
come to Him. Oh, let us bless the divine mercy which
gives us a means so powerful and so efficacious, a
means so sure, and at the same time so easy, of mak
ing reparation for blasphemies; let us make use of it;
let us console ourselves in this way for the sorrow
which we feel at the outrages inflicted on our good
God and Saviour.
III. REPARATION.
Make, with your whole heart, very lively acts of con
trition, of regret, and of pain for all blasphemers.
Impress on your mind the ugliness, the deformities
of the monstrous act which is termed blasphemy. That
which renders it specially horrible is that it attacks a
God who has created us only out of love, and who
seeks to do us good by conferring upon us all the good
things which He Himself enjoys; it attacks a God,
who, from love, became man like unto us, and deliv
ered up His soul to all kinds of sorrows, His body to
all kinds of tortures, His life to the most dreadful of
deaths, in order to give us back the friendship of God
and our rights to the heavenly inheritance. This death,
these torments, and this anguish were necessary.
In presence of these great benefits of the love of God,
place the mockeries, the denials, the imprecations of
blasphemy; think what hatred or blindness is necessary
in order to blaspheme such a God, such a Saviour, and
216 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
then let grief and love and compassion overflow your
heart. Ask for pardon; suffer as Mary suffered at the
foot of the cross, when she saw the sorrowful aspect
of her divine Son, and offer her reparation to supple
ment and perfect yours.
IV. PRAYER.
At the sight of the miserable state in which blas
phemers place themselves, the terrible anger of God
which they incur, the awful chastisements which await
them, how can we help praying fervently for them ?
Pray for them then that they may at last know Him
whom they outrage, and that they may cease from
blasphemy; pray that blasphemy may diminish and
even disappear from the earth; pray with Mary, weep
with Mary, shedding tears over blasphemers; pray with
Jesus Himself, who repeats from age to age, upon the
altar, the words of agony: " Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do."
Practice.
Let us perform all our actions in a spirit of repara
tion for the blasphemies which so deeply wound the
God of the Host.
VIII. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is
the Best Means of Making Reparation for
the Crimes Committed against it.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE with love, with compassion, with wholly
filial respect, the Divine Sacrament before which you
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 217
are kneeling, in order to make reparation as far as you
can for the offences by which it is surely, in some
part of the world, being outraged at this hour.
For it is a fact unfortunately but too well proved,
that not a day passes in which the rage of hell does
not instigate injuries directed against the Eucharist. It
continues to be, as Jesus was during His life, a sign of
contradiction. There are some who love it, others
detest it; some there are who honor it, others there are
who blaspheme it; some who seek it, others who
despise it; there are those who look upon it as their
greatest happiness to receive it often, others never re
ceive it. Whilst good Christians do not ever consider
themselves to be sufficiently well disposed to receive
it worthily, there are hypocrites who make a jest of
receiving it into a soul defiled with mortal sin. Lastly,
in spite of the pious care exercised and the vigilant at
tention of zealous priests, how often do we not hear, to
our horror, that a tabernacle has been forced open, that
the holy ciborium has been seized, that the Sacred
Hosts have been profaned, thrown on the ground,
trampled on, burned ?
Thus indifference, contempt, hatred, irreverence,
blasphemy, sacrilege and profanation are the sins
committed daily against the Blessed Sacrament.
Who is there that does not understand that repara
tion ought to be made to the object against which the
offence has been committed; and that if bad men out
rage the Blessed Sacrament, it is the Blessed Sac
rament which ought to be the object of the honor,
the respect and the love of faithful souls ? And what
better means exist for that purpose than an ardent
adoration, crowning a day begun with a fervent com
munion ?
Come, then, and offer your affection to the God of the
218 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Sacrament, so devoted to your welfare, in reparation for
indifference; your reverent demeanor in the presence
of His majesty, for irreverence; the praises of your
prayers for all His wondrous perfections, in reparation
for blasphemies; your cordial and filial love for hatred;
offer your sympathy and your tears to His sensitive
and loving heart in reparation for all profanations.
Endeavor, in a word, to render Him all the homage
which He is worthy of, in order to make Him forget
all the offences which He receives. Call to your aid
the holy angels who weep over profaned tabernacles;
adore with Mary, who sees, in the Sacrament, all the
outrages of the sorrowful Passion again inflicted upon
her adorable Son.
II. THANKSGIVING.
In order to make thorough reparation it is necessary
to love much. Now nothing is more capable of touch
ing our heart than the knowledge of the love with
which Jesus endures the offences He receives in the
Blessed Sacrament.
He is there because of His love for us, and with
out anything obliging Him to remain there ; our in
difference, our hatred, our sacrilegious outrages can
not tire out His constancy; and He remains there in
spite of all, occupied in doing good even to those who
persecute Him.
He might, when He is outraged, by a single im
pulse of His will, call, to wreak His vengeance, legions
of angels, or He might at once annihilate the guilty;
instead of doing so, He allows Himself to be ill-treated
and seems to give all power to His enemies.
He prays in the secret of His Sacrament for those
who blaspheme Him; He asks His Father for the refor-
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 219
mation and the conversion of those who despise Him;
He longs to transform into a fountain of love the
heart, full of hatred, of His profaners. On the day of
their conversion, even if it be the last of their life, He
comes with incredible haste to their bed of agony to
give them, in a last communion, the kiss of reconcilia
tion.
Is not the patience, the silence, the kindness, the
mercy of the Sacrament when it is outraged a proof
of the triumph of His love? Ah! let us love Him
then, and let us offer Him our affectionate prayers, with
a heart touched and melted with compassion for His
poor heart, wounded by so much hatred, whilst He
loves with so much affection!
III. REPARATION.
You will excite within your soul a sufficient horror
of the sin against the Eucharist, if you can form a just
idea of what it is, what is its value, what it deserves.
It is, in truth, the thrice holy God, whom all nature
obeys and whom the angels adore in heaven. It is
the majesty, the glory, the grandeur, the omnipotence,
the holiness before which the purest seraphim veil
their faces, filled with holy fear. The Eucharist is
that adorable person of the Eternal Word, the only
Son of the Father, in all things equal with and like to
the Father. It is the virginal flesh, the most pure
blood, the most holy body which Mary alone was
worthy to touch with her immaculate hands. And
sacrilegious men dare to insult, to maltreat, to profane
the Eucharist ? They are more guilty than Judas,
more inexcusable than the executioners! Oh my God!
what peace, what security can be looked for in the
world, when the profanation of the Eucharist is multi-
220 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
plied in it as it is in our days ? And how can we help
being afraid that we shall be visited by the most terri
ble afflictions of the divine anger ?
Make reparation, make reparation, pious adorers,
multiply your holy armies to adore always, for hatred
pursues Jesus in the Sacrament day and night!
IV. PRAYER.
My Saviour Jesus, deeply touched by the numberless
affronts which are directed daily against Thee on the
altar by Christians, let me to strive to make amends to
Thee for them.
Pardon, God of goodness and of love, pardon for
the coldness and indifference with which Thy charity
is everywhere repaid : that excessive charity which
retains Thee a captive in our tabernacles!
Pardon for the irreverence and the immodesty of
which Thou art therein the object!
Pardon for the profanations and the sacrileges of
which Thou art therein the victim!
Pardon for my brethren, oh my dear Saviour, and
pardon also for myself, for have I not also offended
Thee often in the divine Eucharist ? Have I not prayed
to Thee without reverence ? Have 1 not received Thee
into a heart defiled by sin ? Pardon, once more, Jesus,
God of clemency and of mercy, pardon!
Accept the reparation I render Thee at this moment
and may it make Thee forget all past sins!
Oh adorable Priest, Victim of my salvation, I offer
Thee my heart, make Thyself master of it, and reign
therein as its absolute Sovereign.
Daily increase my devotion for the most holy of Thy
mysteries and let my delight consist in living in Thy
society.
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 221
Bless the resolution which I make before the angels
here present, not to neglect any opportunity of com
ing to render Thee my homage, to offer Thee my love,
and to pay Thee the tribute of my gratitude.
Enable me, by Thy grace, to be a worthy adorer of
Thy Sacrament, and bestow upon me the happiness
of adding to Thy glory therein by all the means in my
power. Amen.
Practice.
To have the intention in our prayers and good works
to make reparation for Eucharistic sacrileges and prof
anations.
IX. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is
the Most Excellent of Means for Rendering
to God the Great Duty of Prayer.
I. ADORATION.
ALL creatures are under the necessity of praying to
God, not only in order to obtain the help of which
they stand in need, but also and chiefly to attest their
absolute dependence upon the Creator by acknowledg
ing that He is the sole Author and supreme Dispenser
of all good things.
God receives the honor, glory and satisfaction which
are His right when the creature prostrates himself in
His presence, declaring by his prayer that he is of him
self devoid of any good, incapable of any good, en
tirely at the mercy of God's goodness. This homage
brings glory to God, because man thereby confesses
that he is not sufficient for himself, that he has no de
pendence upon himself. When he prays, he confesses
222 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
that neither his intelligence is enlightened enough to
lead him, nor his will strong enough to enable him to
act right if God does not give him His graces of light
and of strength. By prayer he also confesses that he
cannot preserve life nor attain to happiness if God
does not furnish him with means for doing so. To
pray is therefore to acknowledge and proclaim that
God is light and life, the perfect and universal Good,
the Master of all things.
Now if God be glorified by the prayer of man, a
poor and unworthy creature, how much more will He
not be glorified by the prayer of Jesus Christ, at once God
and man, and like to God, His equal in all things?
Well, it is in the Eucharist that Jesus renders to God
this glory. The Son of God is humiliated therein in
presence of the majesty of His Father. He prays to
Him unceasingly, and it is the most humble of prayers,
the most suppliant, pleading for the nothingness of the
creature with the plenitude of God. He prays to Him
in the name of all men, of whom He has the charge,
through His title of supreme Pontiff and universal
Mediator. He adores His Father, He acknowledges and
proclaims that God alone is Goodness, Life, Truth,
Perfection, Happiness; that all creatures have nothing,
are nothing of themselves; and He supplicates Him to
pour His plenitude into the bosom of all men, that they
may live, be preserved, and attain to their last end.
Oh, what a sublime and touching prayer! God be
holds upon all altars, in all tabernacles, His own Son
debased, praying to Him night and day in the name of
the whole earth! How could He be otherwise than
honored, glorified, fully satisfied with this homage, of
which the value is as infinite as the dignity of Him
who renders it, and of which the duration is unending!
Let us draw near then to the altar; let us there be-
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 223
hold, with the eyes of faith, Jesus Christ our Lord,
present in person beneath the sacred species, humili
ated in presence of His Father and praying to Him for
the whole world; let us prostrate ourselves, let us adore
Him, let us unite our prayer to His holy prayer; with
Him and in Him, let us acknowledge that we are
nothing and that we expect everything from God
alone, because He is the infinitely good Author of all
good things, which He will gladly bestow upon those
who pray to Him.
II. THANKSGIVING.
It is in our interest and for our advantage that Jesus
exercises in the Sacrament His ministry of supplica
tion.
How touching He is in this attitude of a suppliant
priest, of a mediator occupied in accomplishing in our
name the duty of prayer. We may be sure that His
prayer will be heard, that God the Father will be
touched by it; is it not His Son, in whom is His great
est delight, His Best Beloved, who is praying to Him ?
Is He not the Priest who is holy, innocent, without
spot, without sin, such as God wishes all His priests
should be ? Has He not added suffering and humilia
tion to His prayer, that He may render it more perfect ?
Does He not pray with the infinite love He has for His
Father and the immense compassion He has for us ?
^ When Jesus prays, the heart of God is filled with in
finite satisfaction. His prayer is pure, humble, disinter
ested, ardent and persevering. What He asks above
all things, are the glory, honor and more universal reign
of His divine Father. All other supplications He makes
subservient to these higher interests; it is His greatest
wish that God may be better praised and adored by
His finite creatures.
224 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Unite, then, your prayers, with the greatest confi
dence, to those of the holy Pontiff of the altar; pray
with Him, like Him, through Him, pray with His in
tentions and in His name; He calls you and desires to
unite you with Himself in order to make of your
prayer and of His but one prayer; be sure, then, that if
you render yourself like unto Him in prayer, you will
be blessed and heard like Him and on account of Him.
III. REPARATION.
By the neglect of the sacred duty of prayer a great
crime is committed, a frightful sin against God.
Be deeply penetrated with the sense of this, that you
may offer to God, by Jesus, in homage and reparation,
the profound sorrow which ought to take possession of
every Christian soul at the sight of this neglect.
Yes, there are men who absolutely refuse to pray,
because their pride will not acknowledge either the su
preme power of God or their own misery. They
reject with contempt and as superstition the duty of
prayer, and not satisfied with thus braving their Cre
ator, with abusing His gifts, with refusing them, blas
pheming against Him5 they also endeavor to turn others
away from prayer, they endeavor to diminir the num
ber of churches, and then to close them altogether, be
cause they are houses of prayer. They would wish
that never a prayer might be offered, neither by an in
dividual nor a family; that in all this world that God
has made, no prayer might ever be uttered.
Who is there that does not understand the frightful
wickedness of such a design ? How abominable an
outrage it is against God! What a deplorable misfor
tune for those who are endeavoring to carry it out and
for those who would submit to it!
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 225
Ah! pray in order to make reparation, utter that
prayer so touching, that prayer so humble, and so
persevering, which Jesus has offered for nineteen
centuries, day and night, to His Father in the Sacra
ment; redouble your fidelity in performing your hours
of adoration, in assisting at Masses; in a word, in
crease if you can, your hours of prayer that you may
make reparation for those who do not pray.
IV. PRAYER.
Uniting yourself in the depth of your heart to Jesus
Christ in the Sacred Host, recite slowly, piously,
lovingly, and with a great desire to address to God
the most perfect of prayers, a prayer which fully hon
ors Him, recite with Jesus, in Him and like Him, the
Pater Noster. Repeat it until you feel your whole
heart united with Him in the same prayer and the
same love.
Practice.
To unite yourself always whilst praying, to Jesus
praying in the Blessed Sacrament.
X. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is
the Easiest and the Sweetest Means of Prayer.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ, present upon the altar,
before your eyes and close to you; adore Him as your
God, full of kindness, who draws near to you that you
may pray to Him more easily, without an effort and
with pleasure.
226 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Prayer is necessary to man, in order that he may ob
tain the help that is indispensable for sanctifying his
life in this world and assuring him life in eternity. But
it would be difficult for him to pray as he ought, that
is to say with confidence, love and perseverance, if God
did not draw near to him, did not render Himself pres
ent to his eyes and to his senses in the Blessed Sacra
ment. He has however made of His churches houses
of prayer, that is to say, places of devotion, so holy, so
filled with His presence that in them we are led natu
rally to pray. In the same degree as we draw near
to the sanctuary and approach the tabernacle, that is to
say in proportion as we draw near to God who re
sides therein in person, the soul, is as it were, gently
elevated, and feels itself to be irresistibly carried away
on the wings of prayer.
This blessing, this grace of prayer, and the fervor with
which we pray, are due to the goodness of Jesus,
which brings Him nearer to man, makes Him so
humble, so condescending. If it were not for that,
what creature, knowing his nothingness and his lit
tleness, would dare to approach the awful majesty of
the thrice holy God ?
Adore then, in the sweet Host, your God, coming to
you that your prayer may be made acceptable.
But even this is not enough. Jesus is in the Blessed
Sacrament the universal Mediator, the great Pontiff
of prayer, praying in the name of all men, pleading
with divine Justice that He may be appeased and with
divine Mercy in favor of sinful man. It is in this also
that the Eucharist makes prayer easy. For the sin of
man renders him unworthy, a rebel, and subjects him
to the anger, the hatred and the vengeance of God.
How could we dare ask for favors when we know
that we deserve nothing but chastisements ? But
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 227
Jesus prays, offers His blood, the sufferings of His
Passion, in the name of and in favor of the guilty;
and then they approach near to God, beneath the shelter
of this all-powerful Mediator, and they pray in His
name, by His prayer and through His merits. And
God forgets their unworthiness and grants their prayer.
Oh sweet, merciful, and beneficent Sacrament! which
brings God to us and gains us His favor that we may
pray to Him with complete confidence: I adore Thee,
I bless Thee, I love Thee with my whole heart and I
desire to pray to Thee always with boundless confi
dence!
II. THANKSGIVING.
Let us open our heart; let us bless and sing the
praises of the Sacrament of all goodness, of all tender
ness, of all delight! By means of this Sacrament
we have with us, here, everywhere, and always, the
most kind, most compassionate, most merciful Sa
viour, who lived on earth doing good, who came
only to save, to heal, to deliver, to console, to en
lighten, to pardon.
We possess Him and pray to Him, even as did the
crowds of maimed, of infirm, of the sick and of the
afflicted, who followed Him in Judea and in Galilee,
and who always received from Him the favors which
they sought.
We possess Him, with those sacred eyes which were
so compassionate to the unfortunate; with those sacred
ears which were never wearied by the cries of the
wretched; with that sacred heart which beat with
emotion, with pity and with compassion in presence of
any kind of misery.
We possess Him who never was able to resist a
228 The Motives of the E it char is tic Adoration.
prayer, Him who calls Himself "Meekness," the Phy
sician, the good Samaritan, the Friend, the Father of
little children.
Who is there who does not understand that in so
journing here, and travelling through all the paths of
this, our desolate earth, in the Eucharist, He desires to
continue, as in His journeyings throughout Judea, His
ministry of goodness and beneficence ?
Can we ever bless Him enough for having given us
Himself, for continuing His real presence amongst us,
and under such encouraging conditions, which so press-
ingly invite us to prayer? His Host, which is every
where, calls to us and repeats without ceasing " Come
to Me; I will refresh you, for I am meek and humble
of heart!"
III. REPARATION.
If Jesus Christ desires, by means of His Sacrament,
to render prayer so easy for us, you will understand
what pain and what injury are inflicted on Him
when we do not pray to Him, when we do not have
recourse to Him, or when we do so without feeling
any confidence in Him.
He wept bitter tears whilst He was on earth, over
ungrateful Jerusalem, the city which had no desire to
believe in Him, to listen to His words of life, or to re
ceive the salvation which He was so mercifully bring
ing to it. And even at the present day, even when He
is spread over the whole world, He is rejected, dis
owned, alone in the midst of men given up to their
pleasures or occupied in amassing gold. Do you not
hear, issuing from His Sacrament, this sorrowful com
plaint, "All through the long day, all through the ages,
I stretch out My hands mercifully towards a people
who contradict Me and refuse to receive Me! "
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 229
He also said to His Apostles: "Only ask, pray in My
name; until now you have never known how to ask
in My name; ask and you shall receive." It is a re
proach which He may address to all, even to us who
are His friends; no, we do not pray to Him with
sufficient confidence, we do not lean enough upon
Him, we do not sufficiently believe either in His
power, or in His love, and in the desire He has to do
us good.
Oh! for His mercy's sake let us make reparation by
praying better, and praying more, and with more con
fidence in the Saviour God who desires, in His Sacra
ment, to render prayer so easy for us.
IV. PRAYER.
Earnestly ask for the grace of prayer, with a great
desire to be heard.
It is a grace of God, dependent upon the gift of
piety, which fills us with confidence in God, which
leads us to pray much, which makes us understand
the great importance of prayer, and which makes us
find true repose, true pleasure in prayer.
The Lord has said by His prophet, " I will pour out
upon them the spirit of prayer." This spirit is chiefly
given by the Eucharist, which is the Sacrament of the
perpetual prayer of Jesus. It is given by the holy and
sweet influences which make themselves felt, which
take possession of us and are impressed upon us be
fore the tabernacle, and above all in the presence of the
exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. It is given to us
by the communion which brings all our powers into a
state of recollection, and unites them so intimately
with Jesus, that He prays in us and makes us pray in
Him.
230 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
Let us therefore betake ourselves every day to the
tabernacle, and even to holy communion, there to ob
tain that grace of life necessary above all else: the
grace of praying with confidence and with love.
Practice.
To seek the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in
order to pray, because there we pray better.
XI. The Adoration of the Most Holy Sacra
ment is a Most Powerful and Efficacious
Means of Prayer.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE and contemplate, with reverence and love,
the divine Saviour, Jesus Christ, truly present beneath
the veils of the Sacrament, adore Him in His character
of Mediator, praying to His Father in the name of the
Church and offering Him the merits of His life, the
sufferings of His Passion and of His death to make
His prayer more powerful.
It is true that Jesus Christ has been constituted Priest
and universal Pontiff, having the mission of praying,
of interceding for the world, and that having begun
to fulfil this office during His life and upon the cross,
He continues it in heaven and in the Blessed Sacra
ment.1 It is another truth that His prayer has infinite
value, and that it is always listened to by God His
1 Prayer, properly speaking, is twofold. It is either a supplication to
God, relying on one's own merits, or the merits of some one else, coupled
with a profession of one's poverty — or inferiority of condition. This
belongs to creatures alone. Or it may be an expression or manifesta
tion of one's will to God in order that He may fulfil it, without imply-
The Motives of the Eitcharistic Adoration. 231
Father, sustained, as it is, by the divine dignity of the
heavenly Pontiff, by His holiness, by His merits, by
His sufferings, and by the great love which His divine
Father bears Him.
Adore, therefore, Jesus, the heavenly Mediator, the
holy Pontiff, who prays, who intercedes, who pleads
for you to Justice that it may be appeased, to Mercy
that it may be lenient, to the liberality of God that it may
shed abundantly its gifts. Unite yourself to Him, lean
upon Him, pray with Him, present Him, elevate Him,
by your thoughts, between earth and Heaven, between
you and the divine Majesty, and say with great faith
and with great humility: " Father, behold Thy beloved
Son! Forget my iniquities, my unworthiness, my in
gratitude; behold Thy Christ in whom Thou takest all
delight and pleasure ; remember His holiness, His
merits, the infinite love with which He served Thee, to
the extent of dying for the glory of Thy name! Maj
esty thrice holy of my God, behold how He debases
Himself in Thy presence! Awful Justice, behold in
His hands, in His feet, and in His heart, the open scar
of the wounds which He received in order to satisfy
Thee!"
Who is there who will not be able to understand
that our prayer, thus united to the prayer of Jesus,
in His name and by His merits, placed, so to say,
in His hands, must be the most powerful and the
most efficacious of prayers ?
ing any poverty or inferiority of condition. This second kind be
longs to Christ. It simply supposes the human will of Christ, distinct
from the divine will, and shows merely the subordination and depend
ence of the human will to the divine will. This distinction and sub
ordination of the divine will in Christ is perpetual, even in heaven,
and at any time may be directed to our sanctification and salvation.
Vide Franzelin Thesis, li.
232 The Motives of the Eu char is tic Adoration.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Our confidence in the prayer of the divine Pontiff
of the Sacrament ought to be all the greater because
we know that it is in order to help us to pray, to
support and encourage our prayer, that He comes to
mediate for us beneath the Eucharistic veils.
Thank Him for it with the deepest gratitude. His
Sacrament is the pledge of the promises made to all
who pray to Him with confidence. Realize, in pres
ence of the tabernacle, the magnificent and merciful
promises made for the first time in the cenacle, after
the august supper given to His Apostles, the Sacra
ment of His love.
"You believe in God, believe also in Me. Do you
not believe that the Father is in Me and that I am in
the Father ? Verily, I say to you, all that you shall ask
of My Father in My name, I will do, that My Father
may be glorified in His Son. If you ask anything in
My name, I will do it.
"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who re-
maineth in Me, and 1 in him, brings forth much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing. If you remain in
Me, and if My words remain in you, all that you desire
you must ask for and I will do it.
" I do not any longer call you My servants, but My
friends, because I have given you all that 1 have re
ceived from My Father. I have chosen you that you
may bring forth much fruit; so that all which you will
ask the Father in My name He may grant you.
" You are sorrowful because I go away, but I will
not leave you orphans; I will come back to you, and
your heart shall rejoice and your joy no one shall be
able to take away from you. Verily, verily I say unto
you, if you ask anything of My Father in My name, He
The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration. 233
will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing
in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy
may be full!"
Recollect once more that these promises to grant our
prayers were made immediately after the Last Supper,
and were strengthened by the gift of the first Host.
Does not the Host which we adore and which per
petuates the gift of the Last Supper assure us that these
promises will be kept in the case of any one who
knows how to rest his prayer upon Jesus Christ ?
Have confidence then, unlimited confidence in
prayer, offered in the name of the all powerful Sacra
ment of love; nothing can be refused to him who
prays in its name, since it is Jesus in person, Christ
the Mediator ceaselessly filling His all powerful office.
III. REPARATION.
If prayer be so powerful when we make it through
the Mediator in the Sacrament, what ought not to be
our regret at praying so little through Him, in Him,
with Him ?
The greatest remorse of the damned is the knowl
edge that they have had in their hands means of salva
tion the most powerful, the most efficacious, and have
not made use of them to save themselves from eternal
unhappiness. Shall we not, at death, also regret hav
ing so shamefully ignored, so shamefully neglected
the power of intercession of the Sacrament of per
fect prayer ? And from the present moment, knowing
the efficacy of the Eucharist in reaching God and ob
taining all necessary succor, ought we not bitterly to
deplore having neglected such a treasure ?
It is but too true, alas! that " we do not know Him
who is in the midst of us." We are ignorant of
234 The Motives of the Eucharistic Adoration.
His love, of His goodness, of the tenderness and the
mercy of His heart, of His desire for our friendship,
of His power, of His claims in regard to God, of His
prayer, which never ceases. Let us make Him hon
orable amends and henceforth let us pray through Him,
with Him, in Him!
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for faith, a faith more lively, firmer, more
worthy of the greatness and the power of the Blessed
Sacrament. It is the greatest blessing in the world to
be filled with fervent faith, to believe in Him, to be
lieve all that He is, all that He can do. We can never
sufficiently acknowledge that the Eucharist is the whole
of the infinite love, the whole of the boundless power,
the whole of the goodness of God, that it is God
Himself made truly man, applying all the energies of
His humanity and His divinity to serving us, to helping
us, to doing us good, to saving us by bringing us
into possession of heaven.
Oh Lord, increase, increase in us faith in Thy Sacra
ment!
Practice.
Pray always before Jesus Christ, the Priest and the
Mediator in the Sacrament, with Him, in His name
and as far as possible in His presence.
Ube Exposition of tbe /IDost
Sacrament.
I. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
is the Glorification of the Real Presence of
Christ in the Eucharist.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ, really present beneath
the sacramental veils, in the splendor, the pomp and
the solemn worship of the exposition, in the glorious
radiance that surrounds the monstrance.
Prostrate yourself in presence of this majestic ap
pearance of your God and your King. Salute, and
adore with reverence, with humility, and the silence of a
holy fear, this dazzling manifestation of the Saviour
who comes forth in splendor from the mysterious re
treat of His tabernacle. He comes to you, He is nearer
to you, and if the radiance of His glorified humanity
remains veiled by the cloud of the sacred species,
at least He has crossed the threshold of His voluntary
prison; He has raised the cover of the golden cibo-
rium as in other days He raised the stone of His
sepulchre, and He manifests to you openly His sacra
mental presence. It is in an immediate manner, with
out anything intervening, that you are permitted to
fix your eyes upon the adorable species which contains
Him, which is so intimately united to Him that it forms
236 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
with Him the wonderful and adorable Eucharist!
Ah, how present the exposition renders Him, Him the
hidden God!
We know that one of the reasons why the Church
has granted to the faithful the exposition of the Blessed
Sacrament is to render homage to the real presence of
Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. In the same way as as
sistance at the holy sacrifice of the Mass honors the
Eucharist as the sacrifice of the New Law; in the same
way as the communion honors the gift, so generous
and so constant, of the Bread of life: so the exposition
has, as its object, the honoring of the permanent pres
ence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Everything is there to show this, to make it re
splendent, to attract to it the attention and the respect
of men, by the pomp of the ceremonies, the ornaments
of the sanctuary and of the altar, the abundance of
lights, the monstrance, placed in the most prominent
position, upon a throne, in the centre of rays which
render it dazzling. Holy Church, moreover, desires
that public adoration, offered by priests and the faith
ful, should be added to the solemn worship of the
exposition, and that this adoration should be continual,
uninterrupted, in such a manner that, at all hours of
the day and of the night, adorers, chosen from
amongst the clergy or the faithful, visibly worship
Him whom the angels invisibly, but really, worship
with them.
All these things, taken together, show clearly that
it is the real presence, the immortal and higher life of
Christ in the Sacrament which must be acknowledged,
adored and celebrated in the exposition.
Let us be faithful to this holy duty, for we are singu
larly indebted to the loving and perpetual presence of
Jesus Christ among us in the Eucharist.
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 237
II. THANKSGIVING.
Like everything which comes to us from the heart of
Jesus Christ through the institution of our good Mother,
holy Church, so the exposition is a blessing bestowed
upon us, procuring for us many precious advantages,
for which we have to render to heaven our thanks
givings.
It is, first of all, a great help to the weakness of our
faith; because, although it does not indeed add any
thing to the truth of the real presence, it makes us
nevertheless better understand and better feel it, by
placing directly before our eyes the sacramental species
which contains and manifests it. Now, therein consists
a great source of help. Composed of body as well as
of soul, an object is all the more present to us if our
bodily eyes show it to us at the same time that faith
attests it. It is the sight of the eyes united with the
vision of faith. It is faith aided, sustained, reanimated
by seeing the object of our faith. All reason for dis
traction is removed. Prayer is rendered more easy by
the inexpressible and sweet radiance of the divine Eu-
charistic sun, by that inexpressible beneficent atmos
phere of recollection, by the penetrating emanation of
grace and of prayer with which the soul is seized
and enveloped, as soon as it places itself, with the
requisite purity and good-will, beneath the influence
of the Host which is exposed.
Yes! it is a special grace which the Saviour bestows
upon us by showing Himself more openly to our eyes,
in order that He may produce a reaction against our
dreadful and constant tendency to forget Him. He
desires that we should remember Him, and our eyes
be so struck with His presence that our hearts should
at last be ravished. Oh! holy persistence of love!
238 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
III. REPARATION.
Let us fully understand how much those are to be
pitied whose hearts are not touched by the great bless
ing of the exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament, and
who do not fulfil the duties of a Christian with re
gard to this merciful manifestation of the Saviour!
Not to desire to occupy ourselves even when He in
vites us at the exposition; not to appreciate so special
a gift, not to make account of this new effort of His
tenderness: to refuse Him the utmost, the most pro
found and the most respectful worship when it is
claimed by His more evident presence, is to wound
His divine heart, to deprive ourselves of those precious
and abundant graces which are certain to come to us
with His royal visit.
Was it not after the days of exposition, during the
octave of Corpus Christi, that the Saviour, unveiling
His heart, sorrowfully complained to Blessed Margaret
Mary that men did not respond to His love except
by coldness and ingratitude ?
Let us examine our former lack of zeal in celebrating
the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament; let us make
reparation for our forgetfulness and let us compassion
ate the divine Victim!
IV. PRAYER.
Let us earnestly pray for the spreading, throughout
all countries, of the worship of the solemn exposition.
It is asking for the increase of the reign of Our Lord;
it is asking for the glorification of His holy humanity;
it is asking that His presence here below should pro
duce more and more of its blessed fruits. "Oh
Father, glorify Thy Son! May Thy Eucharistic king
dom come, oh Jesus! Adveniat regnum tuum euchar-
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 239
isticum!" May this be our constant desire and our
motive.
Practice.
To labor by our personal fidelity and by a holy zeal
to propagate and to multiply the success of solemn ex
positions of the Blessed Sacrament.
II. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament is
the Manifestation of the Personal Royalty of
Jesus Christ.
I. ADORATION.
PROSTRATE yourself, with great reverence, before
the throne which the solemnity of the exposition has
raised for the august presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
and tried to render less unworthy of His royalty by
means of the pomp and insignia of sacred worship.
For you ought never to lose sight of the truth that
Christ is King, truly King, and that as such, He has a
right to supreme honor.
He is King, not only inasmuch as He is God, and
because of the title of His sovereignty as universal
Creator ; but also inasmuch as He is man, for His
human nature, in becoming the humanity of the Word,
has necessarily received from Him a preeminence and a
lofty dominion over all creatures. From the very mo
ment of the Incarnation, this holy humanity has had,
therefore, a right to reign, to dictate laws to the
world, to require the homage of all created wills, and
to punish those who refused such homage to it.
But having resolved to redeem the world by humili-
240 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
alion and suffering, Christ the King renounced, for a
time, the honors due to His royalty; He obeys His
creature, He subjects Himself, true. Yet He desires,
so to speak, to merit and receive all honor and praise
through a new title, through new conquests, through
new triumphs. He strove courageously and heroically
and He conquered. His resurrection sealed His victory
over death, His ascension permitted Him to occupy
His throne above all angelic and human creatures, and
from that time Christ reigns; He desires, in fact, to
reign; He wills to be treated as a King and to receive
royal homage; He could not, indeed, renounce it with
out dishonoring Himself.
His royalty is magnificently acknowledged in heaven.
Saint John beheld a throne whence issued thunder and
lightning, and upon this throne, the Lamb seated in the
calm majesty of His endless reign; and before the
throne, twenty-four elders who adored Him, laying
their crowns at His feet; then, round the throne, celes
tial hosts, who sang: "He is worthy, the Lamb who
was slain, to receive power and divinity, wisdom and
strength, honor and glory and benediction!"
It is evident that, wherever the Man-God is to be
found, He claims the same magnificent, public, royal
homage, because He is always the Christ-King, even
when, through love of us, He becomes the humble
Victim.
Now the Church has prescribed a royal rite for the
worship of her Spouse. It is the solemn exposition of
the Most Blessed Sacrament, to which she invites us,
putting no restrictions on the richness, the splendor
and the decoration of the throne on which the divine
King appears to His people, in order to gather them
around Him and to bless them. Come then to this
throne and testify your affection. The greatest splen-
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 241
dor of an earthly throne is the officers who assemble
around it, and who honor and serve the royal majesty.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Render thanks to Christ for having willed to exercise
His kingdom upon earth as in heaven, in person, and
to the Church for having manifested it to you in the
splendor of the Eucharistic worship.
Is not the presence of Jesus, our rightful King,
consecrated with much holiness, and crowned with
many victories, a supreme honor bestowed upon the
world, subjected until then to the tyranny of Satan and
ceaselessly persecuted by his wretched emissaries ? Is
not the all powerful King present in our midst an in
vincible, active, vigilant, universal Protector? Is it
not an inexpressible benefit, the source of all and every
benefit, since Jesus reigns over the world only for the
greater good of the world ? And the Church, in pre
venting us from forgetting Our King, by placing be
fore our bodily eyes that which the eyes of faith alone
enabled us to perceive behind the doors of the taber
nacle, and by ordaining the frequent solemnities of the
exposition, has she not shown herself to be the loving
Mother who knows all our needs ?
Ah! how sweet it is to contemplate the august and
condescending royalty of the King of the Eucharist.
He appears amidst the golden rays of the monstrance,
upon a throne resplendent with lights, shining at His
feet like the stars sparkling around His celestial throne;
the hymns are more solemn, the reverence deeper, the
silence more religious, the genuflections more humble.
All speak His beneficent royalty.
Ah! amidst the trouble, the humiliation and the
sorrow of our painful exile here, lift up your hearts,
242 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
whilst crowding round your divine King, whilst offer
ing to Him your homage, whilst placing on Him all
your hopes!
III. REPARATION.
By your attention, by your reverence, and by the
splendor of the worship, make reparation for the
universal crime which the nations commit against the
royalty of Jesus Christ, in refusing to acknowledge
Him to be their King, in rejecting His laws. Make
reparation for those who drive Him back into temples
transformed for Him into solitary and miserable pris
ons, and who welcome gladly the reign of Satan him
self. Protest by your adoration, that ''Christ is King;
He must reign upon earth as He does in heaven, and
of His kingdom there shall be no end."
Make reparation also by your generous cooperation
in the splendor of the exposition, for all those selfish
and unintelligent Christians who blame the holy prod
igalities of the Church in adorning the palace of her
royal Spouse; of those Christians who become pe
nurious as soon as there is a question of bestowing
splendor on God's earthly home or exalting by ma
terial adornment the royalty of Jesus Christ; who are
tempted to say, "What is the good of this waste?"
They forget that this holy humanity ought to have
honors heaped upon it in proportion to the extent of
the injuries which it received here below during its sor
rowful Passion, and which is aue to it also as a com
pensation for the humiliations of its Eucharistic state.
IV. PRAYER.
" Adveniat regnnm tiium! May Thy kingdom
come." Oh King of the Eucharist, may this be our
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 243
constant desire, the object of our prayers and the sole
ambition of our faith.
Let us ask for grace, and let us make a resolution
always to give an active cooperation in all that is
attempted around us for the purpose of honoring the
King of love in His sacramental manifestations.
Practice.
Let us enroll ourselves in the congregations estab
lished for adoration and recruit adorers, that the throne
of the King of kings may be always surrounded by a
guard of honor.
III. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
is the Triumphal Rite Due to the Victories
of Jesus Christ.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE and salute Jesus the Conqueror, enthroned
upon the altar transformed into a triumphal arch by its
decorations, its lights and its flowers; sing Christ the
Victor, proclaim His conquests, offer Him your sub
mission, your service and your love in token of
homage. For one of the objects of the solemn wor
ship of the exposition is the acknowledgment and cele
bration of the victories of Jesus over the world, over
Satan and over death.
The Council of Trent affirms it by approving the tri
umphal processions of the feast of Corpus Christi.
Now is not the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
the prolongation of the feast of Corpus Christi ? "It is
244 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
pious and meet every year to honor by special and
most s-olemn worship the august and venerable Sacra
ment, and to carry it in triumph with great reverence
and great pomp through the streets and public places.
It is only right that, on certain days, all Christians
should attest, by as splendid a manifestation as lies in
their power, their gratitude and love for their Lord and
Redeemer, who has bestowed on them the divine
blessing which is the living attestation of His victory
and of His triumph over death. Besides, it is thus that
victorious Truth may triumph over heresy and false
hood, so that our adversaries, confronted with so much
splendor and such unanimous joy may well be van
quished or brought to repentance by means of salutary
shame." Thus speaks the holy Council.
Celebrate therefore the victories of Jesus, exposed
in the Sacred Host before your eyes. Recall to mem
ory His combats, His strifes, His sufferings; what
divine courage, what forgetfulness of self, what mag
nanimity and what heroism He displayed in them;
what weapons and what strategy He made use of:
patience, humility, prayer and sorrow.
The noble end of His combats was to honor the
name of His Father, to reestablish His empire, to
make His glory shine forth; it was to deliver wretched
and guilty man from slavery the most shameful and
to preserve him from eternal death; it was to make
truth reign, together with justice and peace. But the
enterprise was difficult and the enemy powerful. Satan
having become, in consequence of sin, the prince of
this world, had perverted it more and more, had
brought it into a state of servitude, and had attached it
to his interests by permitting it to enjoy all the indul
gences which corrupt nature asked for. Satan had at
his command all the powers of the earth. He had even
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament* 24$
made a conquest of the faithful, and the Temple often
became his synagogue. And Jesus came in the
weakness of a child, lived in the poverty of an artisan,
preached with simplicity, and began by bestowing
benefits that He might gain souls. Satan felt his em
pire threatened. He infused hatred and rage into the
soul of his devotees, and he attacked Christ in a hand-
to-hand combat; he inflicted upon Him the most cruel
wounds. He crushed Him with sufferings of soul and
of body and finally snatched away life from Him in a
last torture.
But his triumph was his defeat; all that Satan ob
tained from the Saviour, the Saviour had willed he
should obtain, with a view to accomplish the prom
ise He had made to His Father to die in order to sat
isfy His justice. He permitted it with a view to His
resurrection, the glory and triumph of which were to
be bought by His death. Therefore the day came
when, in spite of death, the sepulchre, and the agents of
the devil, Christ reappeared, the Victor over Satan, the
Victor over death, the Victor over the world. On that
day He received all nations as His heritage, to govern
them by His grace, during time, and to lead them to
heaven, where He will reign over them in everlasting
glory.
Oh! the glorious, the immortal, the adorable Victor!
To the Lamb who has conquered be honor, glory,
power and benediction, world without end! Amen.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Yes! benediction and thanksgiving, because the vic
tories of Christ are so many victories for us, and even
more our victories than His; and it is in order to apply
the fruits of them to us that He instituted the Blessed
Sacrament.
246 'The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
He perpetuates His victories by ceaselessly renew
ing, in the Church and in souls, supernatural life and
the divine strength which resists Satan and brings to
naught his enterprises. It is the Bread of the strong,
the Bread of the elect, the Bread of soldiers who are
not alarmed either by trials or by persecutions: Fru-
mentum electorum. "It is," says Saint Thomas in
his touching act of thanksgiving after communion,
"the armor of faith and the buckler of good will, an
assured defence against the snares of all our enemies,
visible and invisible; victory and the appeasement of
the passions."
Ah! how strong we should be in all our strife
with our exterior enemies as well as with our in
terior ones, if we made an active and indissoluble
alliance with the Victor of the Host! At least let us
understand that it is to Him we owe all the victories
which we have obtained up to this time! "If any
amongst you," says Saint Bernard, "feels that your
movements of anger, of pride and of impurity become
less strong and less frequent, let him render thanks for
it to the Sacrament, and let him take confidence, be
cause he will, by means of the divine Eucharist, obtain
a perfect cure."
III. REPARATION.
In presence of this generous Conqueror who would
always have given you victory if you had faithfully
asked for His help, followed His precepts with humil
ity, and placed in Him all your trust, deplore the num
berless distressing, persistent faults of your life. Hum
ble yourself; see how little is required to make you
fall! What inconstancy, what frailness, what cow
ardice, more or less hidden under specious pretexts!
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 247
what ease you have in excusing your most lamentable
failings!
And yet what a wretched thing it is to waste and
abuse the precious fruits of victories which cost the
Saviour so dear! Is it not to profane His blood, to
forget His labors, to despise His wounds and His
death, to reject His resurrection ?
Deplore, therefore, the perfidious rage, the murder
ous combats which the nations wage against Jesus
Christ and against His Church. All enterprises under
taken against the Church are attacks upon the rights
which Christ's victory has conferred on Him, an injus
tice, an outrage, a blasphemy against Christ the Con
queror. Be convinced that this is so, and let an ardent
love for the Church inspire you with irreconcilable
aversion against anything which encroaches on His
sacred rights.
IV. PRAYER.
Make also the resolution to be always firm and cour
ageous in serving Jesus Christ. Your King is a
conqueror; He is a victorious soldier, going from one
victory to another. In other words, He has set us the
example: fighting is our state, our duty, our very life.
In order to wage battle vigorously against exterior
enemies, in all the places where they make battle: the
family, the school, the Church, Christian society, be
accustomed to fight with yourself in the humbler war
which your passions, your nature, Satan and his in
visible auxiliaries, wage against you continually. It is
drilling and the handling of arms in a regular and con
tinuous manner, without any show, which prepare
the soldier to be heroic and victorious on the field of
battle.
248 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
Strive, but not without first gaining daily strength
for strife, without dipping your arms daily in the
blood of the Lamb.
In order to gain courage, remember the infallible
promise, "to those who conquer I will give the sweets
of the hidden manna." You will taste it in heaven
in all its excellence if you obtain the victory in the
supreme combat here on earth; you will taste it here
in some of its heavenly sweetness, every time that
you gain a victory over your daily temptations.
Practice.
Strive against your dominant fault, with a view
to bringing to the communion of the following day
the trophy of more than one victory.
IV. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacra
ment is a Solemn Act of Thanksgiving.
I. ADORATION.
ACKNOWLEDGE that upon the altar, seated on the
throne elevated by piety and gratitude, is the adorable
person of Jesus Christ. Salute, with hearts full of glad
ness, the Saviour to whose goodness you owe the august
and sweet Sacrament which is the greatest proof of
His love, the honor and the glory of the Church, the
treasure of humanity, our support, our hope and our
joy.
And in order the better to understand the signifi
cation of the manifestations in His honor on the days
of His solemn exposition, listen to this declaration of
the Council of Trent: " It is only right that on certain
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 249
days, sacred above all others, Christians should gather
together to manifest, by means of an extraordinary and
wholly special testimony, the gratitude and the thankful
remembrance with which their hearts are animated to
wards their common Lord and Redeemer, for so in
estimable a benefit, for a gift in all respects so divine:
Pro tarn ineffabili ac plane drvino beneficial Gratitude
and thankfulness for the gift of the Eucharist: these
are the reasons for this solemn worship of the
Eucharist.
If it be necessary that our gratitude should be pro
portionate, in some way or other, to the benefit con
ferred, is it not right that holy Church ought to exhaust
all the beauties of her liturgy, in order worthily to
acknowledge a gift which, on the part of the Saviour,
is the last effort of His affection? To Christ, who
gives the Eucharist as the supreme expression of His
love, the Church owes a worship which must be
the greatest effort she can make here below for
His glory. "Dare and endeavor as much as thou
canst," exclaims Saint Thomas Aquinas, "for He is
above all praise, and thou canst never praise Him suf
ficiently." Hence the unusual splendor which the
Church desires should everywhere be given to the
expositions of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She de
sires there should be hangings and carpets as rich, as
precious as possible in the temple, an abundant illumi
nation of virgin wax, flowers, and the most beautiful of
decorations for the altar: all that amongst men is made
use of for the purpose of celebrating the festivals of
those they love. The exposition is the festival of
gratitude, therefore joy and gladness ought to be its
distinguishing characteristics. Let your heart and your
soul therefore chant the glorious triumph of goodness,
the masterpiece of love!
250 The Exposition of tfie Most Holy Sacrament.
II. THANKSGIVING.
In order that you may have in its fulness the
spirit of gratitude which your Benefactor, exposed on
His throne of love, expects from you, maintain a spirit
of recollection; call to mind and reckon up all that you
have received from the Eucharist, all that you owe
to it.
If you had only been able to receive it one single
time, on the blessed day of your first communion, you
would have thereby incurred a debt of eternal grati
tude towards Him. For this gift was the price of
a life of labor, of prayer, of heroic sanctity; it was
the price of unheard-of sufferings, crowned by the
most terrible of deaths, accepted from love for you,
and borne with a patience which infinite love alone
could maintain; it was the most precious of all things
contained in heaven and on earth: it was the flesh
and blood, the soul and divinity of Jesus Christ; it
was God Himself, giving Himself to you, a little
child, devoid of merits and almost without virtues!
But how many times since then has not Our Lord
lavished upon you, with a liberality enough to con
found you when you think of it, this absolutely inap
preciable gift ? Every month, every week, every day,
perhaps! This sumptuousness, this magnificence have
become familiar to you. Christian soul, how royally
are you not treated by your God ?
But of how many other excellent, supernatural and
divine gifts, has not this gift of the Eucharist been the
source for you!
It is with a view to the communion or by its virtue,
that your faith has been maintained and developed,
that in spite of the difficulties of life you have not ceased
to hope in God with increasing confidence, that you
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 251
have loved God with supreme love, which has domi
nated and controlled all the other affections of your
heart; that you have been devoted, generous, humble
and patient. It is by the communion that you have
been kept pure, or that you have issued more quickly
from the depths of sin; it is through it that you have
found strength to endure trial, and the secret of enjoy
ing consolation in the midst of suffering and tribula
tion. Is it not through the virtue of the heavenly Host
that you firmly hope to enter heaven at the last ?
And at the thought your soul thrills with joy, which
will be renewed throughout eternity at the remem
brance of the Eucharist, ''whence has come to you
all good things."
Remember all this, and begin at the foot of His earthly
throne the canticle of your undying gratitude!
III. REPARATION.
If the necessity of gratitude to be rendered to the
Eucharist is so well founded and so sacred, you will
understand more fully the crime of nations and of
individual souls which refuse to acquit themselves
of it; and in a spirit of reparation you will henceforth
more piously celebrate the exposition of the Blessed
Sacrament.
The countries redeemed by the God of the Eucha
rist, and possessing in every place altars on which is
daily immolated the God of the Eucharist, tabernacles
wherein He resides to be their protection, their asylum
and their refuge, these countries, alas! shake off more
and more the duty of showing public homage to the
Eucharist.
Yes! public homage, for it is not only to individual
souls that the Eucharist is given; it is to nations them-
252 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
selves; it is to tribes and to countries; therefore it is
incumbent on their governments, on their representa
tives to render it homage, publicly and solemnly, in
the name of the whole body of society; it is incum
bent upon them to contribute towards the worthy and
suitable maintenance of temples and tabernacles, priests
and Levites of the sanctuary ; everything should be
done for the faithful to make the accomplishment of
their religious duties easier; there should be a con
tinual and solemn example of Eucharistic piety ; an
official participation in the holy sacrifice, and in the
processions of the Blessed Sacrament; this is what
gratitude renders obligatory on the nations to Him
who is their chief Sovereign, their generous Benefactor
and their true Safeguard.
But instead of that, do we not everywhere behold
apostasy, indifference, a rupture between modern so
ciety and the God of the Eucharist ? Make reparation
then. For the outrage is all the more serious in that
it comes from high quarters and extends so far.
Make reparation also and pray for all those who live
as though the gift of the Eucharist which they have
nevertheless enjoyed, did not exist any longer for them.
Make reparation because love perpetually repulsed in
spite of its importunity, will at last turn to indifference.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask God for a grateful heart, one that is filled with
a sense of His goodness, one that will be faithful to
Him, one on which His benefits may be engraved in
an ineffaceable manner. Saint Paul complained of its
being one of his greatest afflictions, that certain per
sons were "without affection and without heart."
Avoid inflicting this pain on the most sweet heart of
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 253
Our Lord. Meditate frequently upon the supereminent
gift of the Eucharist, receive it often, and participate
with eagerness in the splendor of the expositions of
the Blessed Sacrament. Respond thus to the ardent
desire of our divine Master: " I have a burning desire
to be loved by man in the Sacrament of My love! "
Practice.
Accustom yourself, through gratitude for the benefit
of the Eucharist, often to repeat, every hour if you
can do so, the following aspiration of thanksgiving:
" Blessed and praised forever be the Most Holy and
Divine Sacrament." (300 days' indulgence.)
V. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
is the Reparation due to Jesus Christ for the
Sufferings and the Ignominies of His Passion.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ upon the altar, in the
immortal glory of His risen flesh; in the unbounded
joy which inundates His soul: and in spite of the Eu-
charistic veils which hide His splendor from your eyes,
believe that you are in the presence of the glorious
Conqueror of death.
Remember the glory which surrounds His holy hu
manity in heaven; which surrounds His soul and His
body; which ascends to Him from the praises, the love
and obedience of the heavenly court.
Now this glory which comes to Him from the elect,
is the recompense which the Father gives Him for the
suffering and humiliations He endured here below; it
254 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
is the reparation offered to His sacred humanity. Did
not Saint Paul formulate the law of this reparation in
these words: "Because Christ annihilated Himself
even to the death of the cross, the Father has exalted
Him and has given Him a name above every other
name" ? It is in the same sense that he also says: "If
we now behold Christ crowned with glory, it is be
cause of His Passion and death."
But if the reparation of glory be given in heaven to
the suffering of the Saviour, is it not just, reason
able and necessary that He should receive it on earth ?
and if He deigns to give us His holy humanity here
below, ought it not to meet with all honor, worship,
and love, that shall serve, in as far as possible, to
make reparation for the injuries, the suffering and the
ignominies with which it was formerly overwhelmed ?
Is not reparation all the more necessary here below,
seeing that it was here below that Christ suffered ? and
after the thorns of suffering, does not earth owe Him
the roses of glorification ?
The exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament offers
them to Him, and in how great perfection! Every
thing in this solemn worship is undertaken for the
purpose of honoring the real and living presence of
the holy humanity of Christ. Instead of the pillar to
which He was ignominiously bound, and the tribunal
where He was shown to the people who showered on
Him their maledictions, there is a rich canopy, an
aureole of lights and of flowers, and the enthusiastic
hosanna of all the people on their knees. Instead of
the purple rag, it is silver and gold embroidered upon
costly materials which form His royal mantle or which
carpet the sanctuary of His residence. Instead of the
sorrowful isolation in which His disciples left Him, it
is the constant fidelity of His priests who from hour
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 255
to hour succeed one another, to render Him without
interruption the glorious homage of their adoration.
" ' Ecce Homo!'1 the Church seems still to say. "Behold
the Man!'' but the Man-God, the Man triumphant, the
Man-Saviour, He who took upon Himself our human
ity that He might give us His divinity and make us the
true adopted sons of God!
Let us prostrate ourselves, therefore, and let us say
to Him, in a spirit of reparation for the outrages of the
Passion: Ave Rex Judeorum ! Hail, hail to Thee, oh
King of the true Israelites! King of the elect, King
worthy of all praise and of all love, hail! Aw Rex
Judeorum !
II. THANKSGIVING.
Let the sentiments of gratitude that fill every soul
at the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus, be poured
forth at the foot of the Eucharistic throne.
For whom was the Passion ? For whom did He
suffer such dreadful torments ? For us and our sins,
for our redemption and for our salvation! For us this
pain, for us this immeasurable suffering, that sin might
be wholly expiated! For us this heroic charity, that
drained the chalice to the dregs, so that no one would
be able to complain of having to drink anything of
which Christ had not already tasted the bitterness!
Well! the exposition places before our eyes Christ,
who carried His love for us so far as to make Him
suffer all these things; is not this a good opportunity
for showing Him publicly our gratitude? With our
whole body let us join in the worship of the exposition ;
with our whole soul join in the adoration, with piety,
recollection, love, joy, Christian enthusiasm; let us
make of these duties and of these sentiments the
256 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
bouquet of the feast of our gratitude towards this most
loving Christ, who so greatly desires that we should
love Him in return, thus paying back to Him some lit
tle portion, even here below, of the immense debt of
gratitude which an eternity of praises will not repay.
Ah, let us enjoy the great happiness which every
affectionate heart cannot help feeling in acknowledging
a benefit, in blessing a benefactor ; here the benefactor is
Jesus, and the blessing our salvation!
III. REPARATION.
Let us consider: What is there which can be
more bitter for Jesus than to have performed miracles
of love for the purpose of gaining our love, and to see
all His efforts rendered useless by the hardness of heart
which renders us insensible to His dying voice, the
accents of which rent the very rocks and converted
pagans ? Add to this insensibility the sacrilegious
communions which renew the abominable treachery
of Judas, and which crucify Christ anew, the vio
lent profanations which reproduce, upon His sac
ramental body, the barbarous treatment of the exe
cutioners on His suffering body, and you will under
stand how necessary it is to make expiation and
reparation.
Weigh the words, so full of sorrow, which He
addressed from the height of His Eucharistic throne to
Blessed Margaret Mary, "It is this which pains Me
more than all which I endured in My Passion."
IV. PRAYER.
Earnestly ask for grace to remember the Passion of
Our Lord every time you come to the Eucharistic altar;
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 257
to think of it with pious, lively, deep, and efficacious
recollection, in which hatred of sin and love of its
heavenly Victim have an equal share. The Eucha
rist is the Host; the Host is the Victim which continues
to offer itself for us, and the voluntary oblation of
which has a claim on our whole gratitude and our
whole love.
Repeat, with Saint Thomas Aquinas, this touching
prayer:
"Oh memorial of the death of the Saviour! Living
Bread which givest life to men, give my soul to live
by Thee, and ever to enjoy Thy sweetness! "
Practice.
Renew the resolution to be faithful in respect to the
hour of adoration we have engaged ourselves to make.
VI. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
is the Reparation Offered to the Eucharistic
Abasements of Jesus Christ.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ present upon the altar
in the Blessed Sacrament.
The Church, by its doctors, its martyrs, its saints,
its pontiffs, assures you of it; it is He, your God,
Christ born of a virgin, immolated on Calvary, reign
ing at the right hand of the Father from the day of
His triumphant entrance into heaven. It is He, you
believe it; you would shed your blood to maintain the
truth of His presence.
258 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
Nevertheless, remembering that the risen Christ is
crowned with glory and honor in heaven, that the
season of abasements has ceased for Him, and that
neither suffering nor humiliation can be again inflicted
on Him, your reason asks how He can be satisfied
with the obscurity and profound humility of the sacra
mental state.
Ah! it is because His love has willed that it should
be so. By His power and His fidelity He maintains it
throughout all ages and will maintain it to the last day
of the world. It is He, identically, personally, sub
stantially the same as in heaven; but it is He, di
vested voluntarily of all which constitutes the splendor,
the privileges and the exercise of His exterior glory in
heaven.
What name shall we give to this spoliation if it be
•not to call it the annihilation of His glory ? Saint
Paul, speaking of the Incarnation, says tftat the Word
of God annihilated Himself by taking the form of a
servant. This glorious Christ, the most beautiful of
the children of men, does He not annihilate Himself
by enclosing, so to say, in the Host, the arm which
wields the sceptre over every creature, the majesty
which the angelic hosts adore in trembling; by con
cealing beneath the obscurity of a thick veil, a glory
and a light more dazzling than the sun ; by giving Him
self up lastly, to the will of man, who by His obedi
ence, earned for Himself the right to judge angels and
men ?
No, it is not only an annihilation; it is an aggrega
tion of abasement, of humiliation, of sacrifice; for all
these spoliations are voluntary; they are sacrifices
freely embraced from the impulse of a limitless love.
Adore then, Christ in the Eucharist, but understand
that compensation is due to Him, and that we ought to
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 259
render Him, in so far as earth can imitate heaven, the
glory of which He deprives Himself of for us, by bury
ing Himself, in the shadow of our tabernacles.
Saint John, in the Apocalypse, speaks of His re
splendent golden throne, of the flames and of the
lightnings which surround it; of the canticles sung in
presence of the conquering Lamb; of the crowns laid
at His feet by His prostrate adorers, of the perfumes
and of the incense burned in His honor.
Well, the worship of the exposition is intended to be
a humble copy of this glory. Hence, the elevated
throne approached by numerous steps, decorated
with flowers, surrounded by pure and brilliant lights,
and at the summit of which Our Lord, quitting His
tabernacle, appears, dominating all things, attract
ing to Himself all eyes, concentrating upon Himself
above all the majesty of the temple, and making, in
presence of the splendor of the worship which is being
rendered to Him, all other worship addressed to His
saints, and even to His blessed Mother, pale before it.
This is why there must be adorers before His throne,
the clergy and the faithful, to surround Him without
interruption, even during the night. Adore, then, upon
the Eucharistic throne, Christ who reigns in heaven,
and repeat the eternal acclamations of the angels and
of the saints: "Hail to the Lamb, the Conqueror."
To Him who was slain, but who lives, power, honor,
praise, thanksgiving and benediction forever and ever!
Amen!
II. THANKSGIVING.
But, oh too loving Christ, wherefore content Thy
self with so poor a compensation ? and wherefore, if
Thou deignest to appear amongst us, dost Thou not do
so in all Thy glory as a Victor? Ah! if it were only
260 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
to permit us to honor Him by our love, and to glorify
Him by our homage, if it were only to permit us to
enjoy the immense consolation of knowing that He
deigns to claim our services, His heart would inspire
Him to remain humble and hidden amongst us.
But He has other reasons still in which His love
shines forth in its entirety. If He divests Him
self of His heavenly glory, and abases Himself so far
as to place Himself within a poor morsel of bread, it is
that He may reproduce in a sensible manner, even be
fore our sinful eyes, the fact of His death, the source
of our salvation; it is to give us an opportunity for ex
ercising the most precious gift we possess, that of
faith; it is also in order to bring Himself to the weak
comprehension of our bodily eyes, which would be
dazzled by His great splendor; it is to offer to divine
Justice in His actual and constant humiliation, atone
ment for the crimes to which the world abandons itself
under the influence of pride, of cupidity and of voluptu
ousness. It is to be for us a victim immolated without
our perceiving with our senses that His blood is really
shed, or His flesh really consumed, though our faith
makes both blood and flesh present to us.
Do not all these reasons excite the liveliest gratitude
in your soul ?
III. REPARATION.
Make reparation for those who, caring nothing for the
heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ, profit by His vol
untary abasements, and treat Him with indifference,
often with contempt and impiety.
If once, removing suddenly the Eucharistic veil and
resuming His glorious exterior, Christ appeared upon
the altar and approached us — us, with our distractions,
The Expos if Ion of the Most Holy Sacrament. 261
with the guilty affection of our hearts, with our curi
osity, our idle conversations, our idle laughter, our in
difference, and our weariness in His presence, what
fear, what terror we should experience! Are we less
guilty because the indefatigable mercy of the Saviour
bears with us in spite of all ? And what is the judg
ment we are preparing for ourselves from this despised
and insulted King ?
IV. PRAYER.
Let us accustom ourselves to look upon our sanctua
ries as being equal to heaven itself, and to recollect
that the Blessed Sacrament contains the King of heaven,
possessed of all power, crowned with utmost glory,
worthy of all adoration and of all honor. May pious
fear be added to our confidence in Thee, oh Jesus, and
may our heart acknowledge in Thee infinite majesty,
joined with infinite goodness!
Practice.
To maintain a very reverential demeanor in presence
of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and to remain on our
knees, in so far as is possible to us, during the hour of
adoration.
VII. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
is a Reparation for Eucharistic Profana
tions.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ, upon the throne of
grace and love, the altar of exposition. Prostrate your
self before Him with profound reverence, and repeat the
262
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
exclamations which resound before His glorious throne
in heaven. Endeavor to redouble your reverence, con
fidence, love and fervor, that you may make reparation
for the excesses of hatred, of contempt and of outrage
perpetrated daily against the august Sacrament. Is it
not just and necessary that where iniquity abounds
love and reparation should also abound ?
Well, then ! it is one of the ends of the exposition of
the Blessed Sacrament to make reparation, by the
splendor of the worship, the manifestation of our rev
erence, and the more solemn affirmation of Catholic
belief in the dogma of the Eucharist, for the blasphemies
of heretics directed against the real presence, for the
profanations of the impious, and the sacrileges of bad
Christians.
Therefore it would be impossible to give too much
importance to these solemnities. The more serious the
offence is, the greater ought to be the reparation. Now,
can there be a more dreadful sin than the profanation of
the Eucharist ? It is the very person of the Son of God
Himself against which sacrilege directs its attacks; it is
His infinite person which is maltreated when His hu
man body and blood are attacked. Doubtless it is the
sacramental species which are directly attacked by
these impieties and these crimes, but it is not there
the outrage stops; seeing that it is Jesus Christ who is
adored beneath these veils, it is He who is outraged
when they are seized by profane hands, when they are
trodden under foot, when they are received into a soul
which is in a state of mortal sin.
You will still better understand the gravity of this
crime if you recall to mind that the God so unworth
ily outraged, abases Himself in the tabernacles solely
from love for us, that He remains there at the cost of
incomprehensible sacrifices imposed on His majesty,
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 263
His greatness and His glory; that His sacramental
presence is the last effort and the greatest testimony
of His love for us. Is not the sin in proportion to the
love which is disowned ?
Lastly, the very weakness, the touching weakness,
with which through condescension for us and from
the deepest sentiment of love for His Father, the
Eucharistic Christ has clothed Himself; the silence
maintained by Him in the face of neglect and of
blasphemy; in the face of violence and of treachery;
do not this weakness and this silence render the out
rages directed against the Eucharist still more odious,
more cruel, more horrible ?
Let the reparation therefore be all the more solemn
and the more imposing! Let nothing be spared in or
der that the adorable, outraged Christ may find atone
ment in the splendors, the piety of solemn expositions
and adorations.
II. THANKSGIVING.
It is a result of the goodness of our God, well calcu
lated to excite our gratitude, that we are enabled to
make reparation, by the splendor of the exposition,
for the crimes committed against the Eucharist.
Where is the Christian soul, which, knowing how
numberless are the attacks directed against the Blessed
Sacrament, and comprehending their gravity, realizing
equally well the offence inflicted on the God of love and
the chastisements merited by the profaners, would not
feel itself solaced at the foot of a throne set up by love,
enriched by generosity, surrounded by a crowd of recol
lected adorers; a throne on which it would perceive,
amidst the radiance of the golden monstrance and the
shining of pure wax tapers, stars of the Eucharistic
264 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
firmament, Jesus, elsewhere outraged, Jesus, elsewhere
profaned, Jesus, elsewhere delivered up to mockeries
in some temple of Satan. But honored here, glorified
here, acclaimed here, reigning here, loved here, con
soled here!
Oh what a sweet joy, an ineffable solace for love is
the sight of love making atonement for ingratitude
by glorification, making reparation for outrage, re
penting for crime at the very time it is being com
mitted; stifling sin at its very birth, and never per
mitting its blasphemous voice to be heard for a single
moment!
Pray for this exquisite and wholly interior solace, en
joyed by those who have supernatural charity; and the
sight of the Divine Sacrament will awake in you feel
ings of the most ardent gratitude.
III. REPARATION.
But if you feel only coldness and indifference in re
gard to the worship of the exposition, warm your
heart by the consideration of the frightful number, the
abominable variety of crimes committed against the
Eucharist.
There is not a day on which the public press does
not mention the breaking open of churches, the thefts
of sacred vessels, the profanation of tabernacles and
of consecrated Hosts. Often theft is the motive, but
often, alas! the profanation of the Sacrament, and
hatred of Jesus Christ are the sole sentiments which
actuate these miserable wretches. This is proven by the
sacred vessels being left in the tabernacle and only the
Sacred Host removed or desecrated. Several bishops,
whose dioceses have been frequently afflicted by these
sacrilegious depredations, have declared that at no other
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 265
period in the memory of man have sacrilegious prof
anations been so numerous as in our days. Then
what diabolical ingenuity is employed in varying and
multiplying outrages! Here young people carry
away in order to profane the sacred Host laid upon
their tongues. Several times it has been children who
have thus profaned the Host of their first communion!
There Hosts are thrown on the ground, scattered over
the pavement of the sanctuary or cast to the winds in
the fields. A great number gathered up by a weeping
priest bore the traces of the steps of men, who had trod
den under foot the holy One of God. Elsewhere, and
so frequently that it may be termed habitually, the
Sacred Hosts are taken into awful meetings of an impi
ous sect, where they are subjected to outrages, to blas
phemies, to spits and to blows, until, having been re
duced to dust, the remains are thrown into the fire or
cast to the winds!
The exposition presents you with powerful and ac
tual means, means which are approved by the Church
for making reparation for these profanations, and will
you remain indifferent? No! it is not possible:
henceforth you will bring to God exposed on the altar
your tribute of love and praise.
IV. PRAYER.
Make the resolution, whilst asking in humble and
fervent prayer for the graces necessary to keep it faith
fully, always to join faithfully in the expiatory wor
ship of the exposition; first by confession and com
munion, second, by cooperating with the solemnity of
the worship; third, by visiting and adoring Our Lord
upon His throne and by praying for the cessation of
Eucharistic profanations.
266 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
Practice.
Make a communion of reparation and an adoration
of reparation on the days of the exposition.
VIII. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
is the Shield of the Church and of the
World, Averting the Stroke of Divine Jus
tice. '
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ raised upon the altar
between heaven and earth, between man and God.
Does He not seem, appearing in this attitude, in
the midst of the splendor and the solemnity of the
worship of the exposition, as though He were accom
plishing a solemn office, filling an august embassy,
performing an important function of His ministry of
Priest and of Mediator between man and God ?
Christ Jesus, was, in fact, on the day of the Incarna
tion, consecrated to be Priest and Pontiff, established
as Mediator, charged with pleading the cause of a
guilty world; more than this, He was made the pro
pitiation for the sins of the whole world. As such He
must offer to God a sacrifice and a victim capable of
satisfying His outraged justice. He must present to
Him merit, virtue, and holiness sufficient to counter
balance the weight of human iniquities.
This is what He accomplished upon Calvary; as
reparation He gave His blood, His life, after having
offered up for us His reputation, His honor, His
liberty; He wept, sighed, suffered and died as the
most devoted of victims to give to God the satisfac-
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 267
tion claimed by His justice. At the same time, he
practiced sublime virtues, virtues carried to their ex
treme perfection, in order to give back to God the
honor of His name, soiled by the sins of men. But
there also, upon Calvary, that He might manifest ex
teriorly the mediation, the intercession, the embassy
which He was fulfilling, He willed to be raised be
tween heaven and earth, uniting in His person the
offended and the offender. He bore our prayers to
God, He united with them His virtues and His merits;
He expiated and washed in His blood all our sins:
and He brought us from heaven, peace, pardon, salva
tion.
This great function the Saviour continues in the Eu
charist; first in the holy sacrifice, where by the hands
of the visible priest, the invisible Pontiff raises Him
self above the altar, offering to His Father for the
guilty world His prayers, His desires, His merits, the
fruit of His death, and the humiliations of His new
state of victim in the Sacrament.
Adore, in His perpetual priesthood, His media
tion, His pleading, His reparation, the adorable Pontiff,
the divine Mediator, the indefatigable Advocate, the
devoted Propitiator, Jesus the just, Jesus the holy One,
and shelter your unworthiness beneath His purity,
your insufficiency beneath the abundance of His
merits.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Misericordia Domini quia non sumus consumpti!
Thanks to the triumphant opposition made by the
prayers, the virtues and the reparations of the holy
Victim, in spite of our innumerable crimes, in spite of
our infidelities, committed again and again, with the
268 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
most audacious effrontery, we have not been exter
minated or chastised with the merciless chastisements
of divine Justice.
What had Sodom and Gomorrha, Ninive and Bab
ylon, deicidal Jerusalem and pagan Rome done, that we
have not done ? We, the apostate people of Christ,
unworthy of His baptism, plunging in all kinds of cor
ruptions, blaspheming and denying God with unheard-
of audacity, and to such an excess that the whole earth
is troubled by our resounding blasphemies and soiled
by our shameless debaucheries!
We have merited the divine chastisements all the
more, inasmuch as better gifts have been heaped
upon us. And not even yet have we been consumed
by the avenging fires of divine anger.
Oh! contemplate, with gratitude, with delight, the
obstinate and indefatigable prayer which the Sacred
Host never fails to oppose to the divine vengeance in
our favor, and you will be unable not to promise it
your everlasting love and gratitude!
III. REPARATION.
Look upon the sins of the world and upon your own
sins in .particular; you will see from what misery the
Divine Mediator of the Eucharist has preserved you;
you will see what you cost Him, and you will long by
penance, by flying from the occasions of sin and by
making reparation for scandals, by prayer and by zeal
to unite your reparations with His.
Is not the world wholly given up to the con
cupiscence of pride, of cupidity and of sensuality ?
Who is it that reigns on earth, who is sought after,
adored and feasted, if it be not the demon of pride,
the demon of avarice, the demon of the flesh ? Only
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 269
look around you and see what ravages are made by
these three overflowing sources of all evil!
And you ? And in you ? What has your life been,
what is it at the present moment ? In spite of its ex
ternal regularity, is it not given up to sin, which has
all the greater hold upon you because its empire is a
secret one ?
Ah! impress seriously on your mind the fact that
divine patience will come to -an end; that one day,
when death has claimed you, you will no longer be
sheltered beneath the reparations of the Divine Host;
you will then be given up to justice, without any one
to mediate for you. Ah! how hard it will be to fall
into the hands of the living God, after having rendered
useless the long intercessions, the indefatigable repara
tions made by the merciful Pontiff and the devoted
Victim!
IV. PRAYER.
Recall to mind the words of Saint John, " My little
children, sin not, but if any man sin, we have an ad
vocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and He is
the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only,
but also for those of the whole world." (St. John
ii. i, 2.)
Practice.
Never to despair because we fall into sin, nor be
cause of the trials which God sends to punish us for
them, or because of public calamities which are sent to
chastise the crimes of nations. But to have recourse
to the most merciful Priest of the Eucharist to purify
ourselves, to receive Him and to cause Him to be ex
posed in order to obtain mercy for us.
270 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament .
IX. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacra
ment is the Manifestation of the Presence of
Jesus Christ our Mediator to Receive our
Homage.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE upon the altar Our Lord Jesus Christ, under
His august titles of Mediator, of Pontiff, of Advocate;
the exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament is in
tended to recall them to us, by showing Him, so to
speak, in the actual and solemn accomplishment of
these important functions.
Listen rather to what the holy epistles tell us, and
see if, interposing ostensibly between earth and heaven,
the Eucharistic Christ does not fill perfectly every con
dition of His merciful functions.
Saint Paul writes that "the eternal Pontiff, chosen
by God after the order of Melchisedech, has penetrated
into the sanctuary of the divinity, there to accomplish
His solemn mediation by offering gifts and sacrifices
for the sins of men." He shows Him to us "stand
ing, calling down in our favor " the mercy and good
ness of God. He elsewhere says that we have "but
one Mediator, Jesus Christ," and that He alone has
been able to traverse the- distance which lies between
God and sinful man, the judge and the criminal.
Saint John encourages us not to despair on account
of our sins, because we have an all-powerful advocate,
Jesus Christ the just.
Lastly, Saint Paul says that "Jesus Christ is seated
at the right hand of God and is seated there that He
may deliver us from our sins."
Such then, is the prayer, the advocacy, the pleading,
the mediation of our adorable Pontiff. In every office
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 271
of the ministry you behold Christ coming forward,
interposing, appearing between God and man.
Is it not all this which is made manifest by the ex
position of the Most Holy Sacrament ? Christ comes
forth from the tabernacle in the sight of all the people;
until then His presence had not been revealed, except
by a humble drapery and a humble lamp; now He is
surrounded by splendid illuminations and a solemn
worship, and He ascends upon a throne where the
monstrance crowns Him with a radiant glory. And
there He stays and remains in sight, accomplishing, as
it were, a public and solemn function; the embassy of
guilty earth which implores peace from the omnipo
tent Monarch whose majesty it has offended and whose
rights it has violated.
From the teachings of Saint Paul we see that the
heavenly Mediator employs in turn, whilst pleading
our cause, His prayers, His merits, and the stigmata
of His wounds, always visible in His hands and in His
feet. He supplicates the divine Goodness, He calls upon
Justice, He strives to influence Mercy. He has all the
means for doing so in His power; for what He asks,
He has gained, bought and paid for with His blood.
And the Eucharistic abasements in which He pre
sents Himself to God upon the altar, are they not
the actual continuation of His humble prayer, of His
indefatigable labors, of His Passion and His death?
Adore then, upon the throne of the exposition, the
divine Mediator, the holy Pontiff, the eloquent Advo
cate, in the very act of His prayer and of His salutary
intervention.
II. THANKSGIVING.
This manner of considering the exposition of the
Most Blessed Sacrament, very useful as it is for excit-
272 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
ing our faith and leading us to fervent adoration, is
also well calculated to expand the heart, to give rise
to thanksgivings, to augment confidence. For Saint
Paul tells us, in words with which gratitude is familiar,
how good our Pontiff is, how merciful, how well in
formed respecting our miseries, how capable of pity
ing and curing them. With what confidence then
should we approach Him !
Listen to his words and enjoy them one after an
other, your eyes being fixed on the merciful exposition
of the Host. We have not a pontiff incapable of com
passionating our infirmities, for, sin excepted, He was
subjected to all kinds of trials in order that He might
resemble us in all things. It was needful that He
should be in all respects like to His brethren, that He
might know how to be touched by their miseries, that
He might be a faithful pontiff before God, that He
might obtain pardon for the sins of His people. For
having Himself suffered and having been tried, He
is able to succor all those who are tempted and who
fall.
Do you hear ? It is from His own experience of
suffering that Jesus derives His pity for our troubles;
it is from the remembrance of what He endured for
sin that inspires Him with feelings of mercy to
wards sinners. He has only to remember, and com
passion overflows His heart for those who are still
enduring the tribulations of life, and, as though it
were to see and to feel them still more closely, to
be mingled with them and to bear the burden with
us, behold Him here in this world with us, Himself
traversing, like us, His hard road across the valley of
tears!
Oh merciful Mediator, Priest, Pastor and Father!
Jesus! how incredibly good Thou art!
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 273
III. REPARATION.
The merciful and incessant prayer of our adorable
Mediator lays a stricter obligation on us in regard to
prayer, which is a great duty, at the same time that it
is an all powerful help.
As creatures and as Christians we are bound to
pray, that is to say, to confess our poverty and our
powerlessness, and to have recourse to the pleni
tude, to the liberality, to the power of our God.
We are bound to render Him this homage, not only
when misfortune threatens us, but at all times, and to
make prayer a regular and essential duty of our life.
It is to be wanting towards God as much as to our
selves, when we do not pray sufficiently. But this
duty is rendered more necessary in consequence of the
solemn, persevering prayer, full of sacrifices and
humiliations, which Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Pon
tiff, sends up from the tabernacle and from His throne
of exposition.
Behold then the heroic example which is given
you by the King of glory, persevering during all ages
in the humble prayer of the Eucharistic state!
Think of it! that incessant, generous prayer, the
fruit of so many sacrifices, will be the rule by which
your life will be judged! If He has prayed so much
what ought not you to do ?
Ah! you know with what crushing weight the
words of the Saviour fell upon the Jewish people.
"All the day long I have stretched out My hands to
wards My people who would not see Me and who re
jected Me! " Do you not hear this plaint coming forth
from the desolate and heartrending solitude which too
often surrounds the merciful and indefatigable Pontiff
of the Host ? Let it touch you and make you accomplish
in all its fulness, the duty of prayer.
274 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
IV. PRAYER.
Ask for the grace of prayer and make a resolution ; the
hour is favorable for doing so. By manifesting to all eyes
in a splendor which is imposing, His grand and solemn
mediation, the Eucharistic Pontiff sheds over His
Church a new and abundant spirit of prayer. Open
your heart to this spirit, welcome all opportunity of
praying more; and above all show your preference for
the hours of adoration proposed to you, and during
which you will be able, in presence of the all-power
ful Mediator, with Him and by Him to accomplish
your duty to pray. Let us go to the throne of grace
and we shall there find pardon and help in every hour
of need.
Practice.
To accept always, even at the cost of real sacrifices
which Our Lord will repay a hundredfold, an hour of
adoration when the Most Holy Sacrament is exposed.
X. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
Facilitates Prayer and our Relations with Jesus.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE Our Lord Jesus Christ, present before you on
the throne of His grace and of His mercy; give your
self to Him, raise yourself towards Him by the love,
the joy of seeing Him exposed before your eyes, seem
ing to call you and to attract you to Him. Listen to
Him pronouncing- from His lofty throne the words full
of hope for us, of glory for Himself: " When I shall be
lifted up I will draw all men towards Me."
The more indeed that He manifests Himself, the more
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 275
the Saviour draws us nearer to Him. The exposition
shows Him under the most favorable conditions. It
does not remove the Eucharistic veil which conceals
the living and glorified humanity of Jesus Christ, but
it removes all other barriers, and whilst marvelously
consoling the faithful, it obliges the indifferent and the
incredulous to say: " What is there ?" Now it is very
often by means of a question of this kind that the light
of truth penetrates into a soul which has remained
upright in spite of its ignorance and its errors. True,
the Saviour is as really present in the darkness of the
tabernacle as on the splendid throne of the exposition.
But the door of the tabernacle comes between our
eyes and the Saviour whom we seek with so much
longing.
Adore then, the Saviour who places Himself directly
before you; let your bodily eyes, fixed upon the Sa
cred Host, assist your faith to realize and contemplate
Him whom that Host encloses. The Church wills that
upon the altar, where the Most Holy Sacrament is
exposed, there should be neither pictures, nor statues,
nor relics, but only Him alone, so that nothing may
distract the attention of the faithful who approach it.
Ah! enter into this intention of holy Church, and as
soon as you are in the presence of the adorable Sacrament
fix your eyes upon it, do not detach them from it, let
your eyes speak to it of your faith, of your love, of the
delight you take in it; let them also express your do
cility, your submission, your obedience.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Yes, a simple fixed glance directed reverentially to
the adorable Host may contain all the homage of per
fect piety, and stand in lieu of any prayer.
How many things, indeed, may not a glance ex-
276 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
press! Does not the glance which the father directs
towards his child, the friend towards his friend, ex
press love, pleasure, the joy of seeing him ? Does
not the glance of the poor directed towards the rich
supplicate and implore ? Does not the shamed and
humiliated glance of the criminal, directing itself to
wards the judge, ask for pardon ? Evidently the eyes
can pray; they pray, hope, love, praise, implore,
supplicate, confess, humble themselves, protest; how
many things indeed can they express, things which
cannot issue from a heart oppressed by grief and which
the lips find it impossible to translate into words ?
The poor paralyzed men, the lepers of the Gospel,
raised their suppliant eyes to Jesus; only rarely did
they add a cry of complaint and distress; they gazed,
laden with sorrow and desire, until they had that desire
granted.
The most ignorant, the most inexperienced in spir
itual things, can thus converse easily with Jesus and
really and truly pray, if only they will come and place
themselves beneath the sweet rays of the sun of the
exposition, fix their eyes upon the Sacred Host, and
say to it as did the holy King Josaphat, ''Lord, our
God, not knowing what to do in such great anguish,
there remains for us but one sole means of salvation:
it is to raise our eyes towards Thee: " Tantum nobis
super est ut oculos nostros dirigamus ad te !
Ah, bless the Saviour for having by His condescen
sion made your relations with Him so filial. He has
said, and it is infinitely true, that His delight is to con
verse with the children of men.
III. REPARATION.
The exposition is also very efficacious. for inducing
us to practice virtues and to examine our souls; to con-
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 277
vert us and enable us to realize the true meaning of a
perfect Christian life.
The ideal, the type of all perfection, is Jesus Christ,
who presents us with His own life as a model for ours,
and gives us the supernatural power of attaining to it.
This is why He has said: "\ am the way, the truth
and the life"; in Me is the perfection of all virtue, the
means of arriving at the perfect life and living in it.
Now the exposition places so clearly before our eyes
all His divine virtues, that it suffices to fix the eyes for
a moment upon the Sacred Host in order to see and
comprehend them.
You know what is the power of the eyes to behold
the actions, the morals, the good or bad habits of men.
Good, as well as evil is learned through the eyes more
than through any other sense. The eye transmits the
impression it receives to the imagination; the remem
brance to the memory, attraction, or repulsion of the
heart. Well, look attentively at the Sacred Host.
The Son of God is there, in the sacramental state
for you! What a lesson of devotedness, of love, of
heroic charity, in regard to ungrateful, guilty man,
who is so infinitely below his Creator! What a lesson
of humility! To renounce the brilliancy of His maj
esty, all the splendor of heaven, and to veil Himself be
neath the obscure covering of the species, put Himself
into a morsel of bread! What a lesson of obedience,
of poverty, of abnegation, of heroic patience! Jesus
dependent upon men, not only dependent upon what
faith and what love they choose to give Him, but also
subject to their profanations and their sacrileges.
And all this Our Lord does freely, from love to us,
to sanctify us by His example and to glorify His
Father, the Author of all perfection!
Well, do not these examples strike the eyes of who-
278 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
ever piously looks at the Host ? Ah ! in order to make
a fruitful examination of conscience capable of con
verting you and enabling you to do penance for all
your sins, come and place yourself often in presence of
the Holy Sacrament in exposition. First look at it,
then at yourself, and make a comparison. Ah! the
comparison would be crushing and full of despair for
you, if the most merciful Master of virtues were not
at the same time the inexhaustible principle of all vir
tues, always ready to give them to us, to develop them
in our souls, especially if, after having contemplated
Him in the exposition, we receive Him in communion!
IV. PRAYER.
Allow yourself therefore to be won to the Saviour
by the silent persuasion of the exposition of the
Most Blessed Sacrament. It would be necessary to be
an obstinate unbeliever not to be touched, subjugated,
by such a Teacher, however seldom we consent to
come and listen to Him, provided that when we do
come we will only look at Him.
Bring little children, bring the poor, the rich, the
learned, the ignorant, those in the country as well as
in cities, to the Holy Sacrament in exposition, whether
it be for adoration, or simply for Benediction. Some
of them do not know, you say, either how to pray
or how to reflect? They can at least look! They
will then see, and they will be touched by the
splendor of the exposition, and if they are powerless
to pray much of themselves, will not Jesus their Sav
iour, Jesus who loves them and who remains with
them in the Eucharist, act upon their hearts by means
of the influence and the grace of His presence ? In
the desert it sufficed, in order to obtain a cure, to raise
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 279
a suppliant glance towards the brazen serpent erected
in the midst; will not a glance directed towards the
Saviour be more efficacious ? and these souls which by
baptism have been sanctified, which the spirit of grace
and of prayer has consecrated, will experience the liv
ing influences, the sanctifying holiness of the real,
true, living Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Practice.
To pray, whenever we can, at the feet of the Host
exposed!
XI. The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament
Responds to the Desires Manifested by Our
Lord at Paray-le-Monial in the Revelation
of His Heart.
I. ADORATION.
ON your knees at the foot of the throne on which is
your God and your King in His majesty, veiled by
love, adore Him in union with the Blessed Margaret
Mary, when she saw Him and heard Him in the most
solemn of the revelations of His heart.
"Once, when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed,
He suddenly showed me His adorable heart, environed
by flames, which issued from His sacred breast like a
furnace. His five wounds shone in His hands and in
His feet like suns; the whole of His holy humanity
was environed with flames."
You see, it is Jesus Christ Himself, in the perfection
of His holy humanity, who shows Himself to Blessed
Margaret Mary, by raising the veils of the Host and by
280 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
suddenly illuminating the profound retreats in which
are hidden the real presence. The heart of Jesus did
not show itself in the Sacred Host separated from the
breast of the Saviour in which it beats, or of the holy
humanity which it animates. Jesus, in person, appears,
uncovers His breast and shows His heart. Oh ! in spite
of the obscurity of the species, thoroughly believe that
it is Jesus in person who is in the Eucharist; adore Him
always in the totality of His being and of His life.
Christum totum !
And then the Saviour said to the confidant of His
heart, whilst showing it to her: " Behold this heart
which has loved men so much, that it has spared itself
nothing, even to the exhausting and consuming of it
self, that it might testify to them its love. In return I
receive from the majority of mankind nothing but
ingratitude, coldness, contempt, irreverence, and sac
rileges inflicted on the Sacrament of My love. Do
thou, at least, endeavor to console Me, by making Me
some return."
Our Lord also tells Blessed Margaret Mary of what
this return should consist: " 1 merit to be honored by
men in the Blessed Sacrament! I desire to be treated
as a king in the palace of a king! "
Ah, Lord! we desire to offer Thee honor and love; we
desire to glorify Thee in the solemn pomp of the expo
sition. We desire to raise Thee upon a magnificent
throne, to surround Thee with splendor, to create for
Thee a court of faithful adorers, who will honor Thee by
their perpetual presence, praise Thee with their songs,
adore Thee by their breathless silence, their profound
reverence, and all the homage with which interior re
ligion will fill their soul; faith, love, admiration, sub
mission, all the homage of adoration; gratitude, thank
fulness, joy, fidelity, all the acts of thanksgiving; con-
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 281
trition, sorrow, condolence, sadness, detestation of
evil, tears, sacrifices, immolations, all the acts of repa
ration; confidence, ardor, zeal, apostolic charity, sup
plications, tears of desire, all the homage of prayer.
Thy adorers will employ themselves in nothing else
except thus offering everything to Thee, uniting them
selves with Thee, Priest most holy, Victim of infinite
merit, and at the same time, God all powerful, most
holy and infinitely kind, who claims our homage and
grants our prayers.
The honor of solemn exposition and of perpetual
adoration, it is this which must be given to the Euchar-
istic Christ in order to satisfy the desires of His heart.
II. THANKSGIVING.
The splendor of the worship of the solemn exposi
tion, and the homage of the perpetual adoration ought
to be a consolation for whoever understands the love
and the blessings of the Eucharist, for they are thereby
permitted to pay a sacred debt, and to lighten the
weight of gratitude which the too great gift of God
lays upon men.
The exposition claims more than does the ordinary
worship of Our Lord: it is magnificent because of its
very institution : Quantum potes, tantum aude ! But
it is for this very reason that it better responds to the
love of the sacred heart and of its desires.
He has spared nothing "even to the exhausting and
consuming of Himself," in order to testify to us His
love, and we are sparing in the gratitude which we
show Him ? We deny ourselves the joy of putting
aside the ordinary, to do more than is strictly required;
to exhaust ourselves, and to consume ourselves ? There
are ineffable joys contained in giving, in being lavish
282 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
towards those we love; let us give ourselves this holy
and lasting joy, from gratitude for the excess of love
in the Saviour who, during His life and on His cross
exhausted Himself for us, and in His Sacrament con
sumes Himself every day for our salvation.
III. REPARATION.
In order to experience the sentiments and ac
complish the works of just reparation towards the
sacred heart, weigh the sorrowful words which com
pose the second portion of the revelations: ''And in
return I receive from the majority of mankind nothing
but ingratitude, coldness, irreverence, contempt and
sacrileges inflicted on the Sacrament of My love."
" In return," instead of the loving gratitude justly
due for so much love; oh what a sad contrast be
tween Him and us, between His heart and our hearts;
between Him who exhausts and consumes Himself
for us and we who are so afraid of laboring, of striv
ing and of suffering for Him!
" I receive from the majority; " He does not say from
all, but from the majority. There are faithful souls
still, but they are in the minority; the majority re
spond to His love only by ingratitude.
In these words He sums up all the shortcomings and
the outrages of men in regard to His Sacrament. Cold
ness, irreverence, contempt and sacrilege: what is all
this if it be not the evil fruits of ingratitude, of the
absence of love? He complains therefore of "cold
ness " that is to say of the egotism, of the hardness of
our hearts, which nothing can touch, move, or enrap
ture! He complains of the irreverence and the con
tempt with which He is treated, the lack of respect,
zeal, honor. The Church claims certain forms of re-
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 283
spect: genuflection, prostrations, a lamp, wax tapers,
linen cloths. All night long He is shut up in His tem
ples and no one thinks about Him until the next day;
His lamp, which honored Him at any rate by its little
flickering flame, becomes extinguished from want of
attention; negligence allows dust to accumulate even
about the altar and the tabernacle; meanness rules over
the expenses attendant upon His worship and says that
everything is good enough as it is, what need is there
to make it beautiful ? Ut quid perditio hcec ? No,
Lord, Thou art not treated as well as the meanest
amongst ourselves!
Lastly the sacrileges committed by those who come
to communion and profane Thee in the secret of
their heart; those who pillage Thy tabernacles for the
profit of the tools of Satan complete the crime of
human ingratitude against Thy loving presence.
"All this" Thou didst add, oh sweet Saviour, pa
tient Victim, " is more felt by Me than anything which
I endured in My Passion."
And we hesitate to obtain honor for Thee, we hesi
tate to attend the solemn manifestations of the exposi
tion, prepared in souls as well as in temples. Those
manifestations which should know no limit but that
of gratitude for Thy innumerable blessings, of purest
love, its one desire being to be measureless!
IV. PRAYER.
"Do thou at least endeavor to console Me by mak
ing Me some return, according to thy power."
Behold the resolution to be made, the grace to be
asked for. We ought to believe that we really can,
by our ardor, our zeal and our homage, not only render
to Jesus the religion which is His due, as to our su-
284 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
preme Master, but also that we can solace Him, com
pensate Him, console Him!
Strong in this faith, let us adore, let us communi
cate with assiduity and fervor; let us adorn His
temples with beauty and splendor, let us strive to prop
agate the worship of the exposition: we shall thereby
gain merits, we shall satisfy the heart of Jesus, we
shall appease His "thirst to be honored by men in the
Blessed Sacrament!"
Practice.
Zeal for the maintenance of the adornment of the
altar during the exposition.
XII. Our Duties in Regard to the Exposition of the
Most Blessed Sacrament.
I. ADORATION.
ADORE your Lord and your King upon the throne of
His love, in union with the angels in heaven, and with
holy Church upon earth. In all places where He mani
fests His presence and His glory, He imposes duties at
the same time that He sheds down blessings.
In heaven, where He is in the full and perfect mani
festation of all that He is, where He is seen not only
in His holy, glorified humanity, but revealing the treas
ures of graces, of virtues, of merit, of the dignity of
His august person, in heaven where He is seen, where
all that He is, is acknowledged by all the angels and
saints, who render Him that exterior and interior hom
age which His humanity and His divinity merit, the
worship accorded Him fully equals His expectations.
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 285
It is all homage, rendered in perfect harmony, with
unfailing perpetuity, and astonishing abundance;
splendor which no one can estimate; glorious praise,
canticles, songs, acclamations. They are standing,
they are contemplating, their heads are raised; they
are on their knees, and they are veiling their faces;
they prostrate themselves with their foreheads in the
dust; they cast their crowns at the foot of the throne,
they wave their golden censers; they speak, they are
silent, and their silence is adoration as well as their
speech; they stand motionless around the throne, and
they march triumphantly in the train of the conquering
Lamb; lastly, from their soul, their heart and their
whole interior being, filled with light, with love,
with divine strength, issue without ceasing, all that
perfect homage which the elect can offer to their divine
King.
Such is the glorious adoration of heaven: angels and
saints give themselves up to it without reserve; all the
duties of the creature towards the King of glory are ac
complished by them in the utmost perfection.
The same King, upon His throne of grace, claims
those duties in which we are instructed by holy Church.
The earth, even when filled with grace, is certainly very
powerless to honor the ever-present God, as He desires,
but the religion of grace will one day be completed by
that of glory, and God will have received, from His
redeemed creature, all that He desires to receive.
Meanwhile it is in following the rules of the Church
with regard to her religious ceremonies, it is by enter
ing into the spirit of her councils, it is by aiming to
reach perfection, for the purpose of honoring and wor
shipping the royal Spouse, that we may accomplish
the duties of a Christian towards the King of grace
exposed on our altars.
286 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
Adore then, with the faith of the Church, believing
firmly, explicitly and lovingly. Adore with her love
and her generosity, that of a perfect bride, heroically
devoted to her Spouse; follow strictly her liturgy, in
order to adore in union with her. Give splendor,
maintain reverence; take care that the praiseworthy de
sire of making a beautiful, dazzling, imposing display,
does not make you lose sight of the awful majesty, the
adorable holiness, the august and holy attributes of
Him whom you adore. Negligence constitutes a shame
ful irreverence; worldly pomp, theatrical or profane
music, illuminations such as are used in worldly
festivals, constitute another.
Let the worship of the exposition be royal; let it
remain liturgical; let it be of great solemnity; let it
excite much interior religion in souls; let the eyes be
impressed; but above all, let hearts be given.
II. THANKSGIVING.
Besides, in this fidelity in following the rubrics of the
Church, in entering into her spirit in everything that she
ordains, and in fulfilling her counsels in so far as is pos
sible to us, the worship of the exposition will produce
all the fruits of her teaching in our souls.
It is then that all those who have consecrated to it their
cares and their labors will enjoy the real pleasure which
the divine Master infuses in souls when He is pleased
with His children. It is then that we shall merit the
eulogium, traced by Moses for the people of God, and
which is so great an honor for a parish, an association
or a town: "You know that I have taught you
statutes and justices as the Lord my God hath com
manded rne. . . . And you shall observe and ful
fil them in work. For this is your wisdom, and under-
The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. 287
standing in the sight of nations, that hearing all these
precepts they may say, Behold a wise and understand
ing people, a great nation. Neither is there any other
nation so great that hath gods so nigh them as our
God is present to all our petitions." (Deut. iv. 5-7.)
III. REPARATION.
Although the exposition has solely as its object the
honoring of the God of love, and although it is one of
the best and most efficacious reparations which can be
offered to Him for the ingratitude and the outrages
committed against His beneficent presence in the
tabernacle, it must nevertheless be sorrowfully stated
that this very reparation itself requires reparation, and
that it is necessary to weep over the negligence Christ
suffers, even on the days of the most pious solemnities.
Our Lord appearing to Blessed Margaret Mary at the
end of the octave of Corpus Christi, asked of her the
worship of His heart as a compensation for the in
gratitude, the irreverence, the outrages with which He
had been afflicted during the days of His royal mani
festation.
Make reparation then for irreverence committed in
His divine worship, by disobedience, by parsimony, by
negligence in maintaining an uninterrupted adoration
before the throne; by the small degree of reverence
shown by the faithful in the Church, the Holy Sacra
ment exposed requiring a more profound silence, a
more perfect recollection; by the contempt of those
who will not yield to the exhortations of pastors beg
ging them to receive the King on His triumphal visit;
by sacrilegious communions of some whom human
respect perhaps has induced to celebrate the solemn
adoration by receiving Christ's body and blood* and
288 The Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament.
who have not had the courage to put their heart in
unison with their outward show of religion.
Oh yes! make reparation: for even His triumph
is not devoid of pain for the divine King. As the
Pharisees murmured and insulted Him in secret whilst
the people were celebrating His triumphal entrance
into Jerusalem, so now the golden crown of the mon
strance is, for our King, a victim even in His glory
here below, a crown of ignominy; and the rays which
radiate from it enclose more than one thorn which
pierce His adorable head.
IV. PRAYER.
Make the resolution always to observe, in so far as
is possible, everything that is suggested by the holy
Roman Church in regard to the worship of the expo
sition; never to do anything or assist in doing any
thing that you know is forbidden by her or contrary to
her spirit.
Have in all your prayers, in the whole of your
religious life, a fixed and invariable intention to pray
for the extension of the reign of the King of the
Eucharist by means of the worship of the exposition.
Practice.
Endeavor in your devotion to the Blessed Sacra
ment to be more and more imbued with the sentiments
and the formulas of prayer and of worship of the holy
Roman Church.
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